New Delhi. Mechanical engineer by profession. When he did not like the work, he did MBA in marketing. He took charge of sales and marketing in Hutchison Telecom (now Vodafone Idea). But he left the comfortable corporate world. The reason was to take care of health services for his elderly parents living in India.
The man in question is Girish Rao, a mechanical engineer. He started Vidal Health in Bengaluru in 2002. Vidal Health provides third party administration (TPA) services in the healthcare space. Shankar Bali, a telecom and fintech professional, joined him as joint managing director. According to a report published in Your Story, today Vidal Health manages a premium portfolio of Rs 3000 crore.
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Jeff Bezos was becoming a champion on the internet, I got inspiration from him
Girish started a business to help non-resident Indians (NRIs) with healthcare services for their aged parents living in India. “NRIs living in the US had problems taking care of their parents living back home (India). They could not travel frequently between the two countries. At that time, Jeff Bezos was championing the internet. Inspired by him, I launched a service portal for NRIs and their parents,” he says. Girish tried several models to build an NRI database. These ranged from working with banks to acquiring a company that physically posted emails from NRIs to their aged parents without internet access.
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All the money invested in the business was lost
The business did not take off and between 2000-2002, Girish lost the funds he had invested. Despite this, however, he realised that the network of hospitals he had built in major Indian cities could come in handy when the government was opening up health insurance to the private sector. “In 2001, there was a white paper that explained how private organisations could make a mark in this space. Looking at the document, I realised I already had the network to build such an organisation. In 2002, I applied and got the licence,” he says.
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Liberalization and the growing popularity of the Internet increased business
Liberalisation of the insurance sector in India in the late 90s and the growing popularity of the internet accelerated Girish Rao’s entrepreneurial journey. Girish, who aims to challenge the status quo and solve complex problems, tells YourStory, “At that time, the Indian insurance sector was opened up to private organisations. I got the license and started Vidal Health with a mission to provide good quality TPA services to health insurance policyholders in India and abroad.
Vidal operates in more than 800 locations
Currently, Vidal – one of India’s top healthcare management companies – operates in over 800 locations across India and partners with over 10,000 service providers, including hospitals, diagnostics labs and physicians. Girish claims that Vidal handles over 10 lakh claims and eight lakh pre-authorization requests every year. It even handles a premium portfolio of Rs 3,000 crore in health insurance. However, for Girish, the failure of his first venture sowed the seeds for setting up Vidal Health.
Tags: Business news, Success Story
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 3, 2021, 16:44 IST