From Apps to Advocacy: Why Technology Alone Can’t Fix Hospital Costs
- Khushi Berry
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
For the last decade, Indian healthcare has tried to solve its cost problem with technology.
More apps. More cards. More platforms. More dashboards.
Yet hospital bills continue to rise. Out-of-pocket expenses remain stubbornly high. Even insured patients walk out of hospitals shocked by what they had to pay.
This raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: If healthcare technology has advanced so much, why do hospital costs still feel uncontrollable for patients?
The answer is simple — and inconvenient.
Technology can organize healthcare. It cannot rebalance power.
And hospital costs are not a technology problem. They are a negotiation problem.
The Rise of Health Tech — And Its Limits
India has seen an explosion of health-tech innovation:
Appointment booking apps
Digital health cards
Cashless insurance platforms
Hospital discovery marketplaces
Wellness and preventive care tools
These have undeniably improved access and convenience. Patients can now compare hospitals, book doctors, upload insurance documents, and track claims digitally.
But when it comes to the final hospital bill, most patients still face the same reality:
One estimate
Little clarity
No leverage
No negotiation
The interface has changed. The economics have not.
The Core Issue: Hospital Pricing Is Not Transparent — It’s Negotiated
Hospital pricing in India is not fixed.
Behind the scenes, private hospitals negotiate aggressively every day with:
Insurance companies
TPAs
Corporates
Government schemes
Rates are discussed line by line. Packages are customized. Discounts are built in. Costs are optimized.
But when an individual patient walks in?
They receive a “standard package.”
No benchmark. No comparison. No negotiation.
This is not because negotiation is impossible. It’s because patients are unrepresented.
Technology can show you options.It cannot negotiate on your behalf.
Why Apps and Platforms Can’t Reduce Hospital Costs
Most healthcare apps and platforms focus on information and access, not representation.
Here’s what they can do well:
List hospitals
Show reviews
Enable bookings
Process insurance claims
Here’s what they don’t do:
Challenge inflated packages
Negotiate room categories and inclusions
Push back on non-payables
Protect insurance limits from unnecessary exhaustion
Why?
Because most platforms are not incentivised to reduce hospital revenue.
Many depend on:
Hospital partnerships
Referral fees
Sponsored listings
Network arrangements
This creates a structural conflict.
You cannot lower hospital bills if hospitals are paying you.
Insurance Technology Isn’t the Same as Cost Protection
Many patients believe health insurance — especially cashless insurance — protects them from high hospital costs.
It doesn’t.
Insurance technology helps with:
Claim processing
Policy checks
Network validation
But insurance does not negotiate hospital pricing for individual patients.
As a result, insured patients still face:
Non-payables charged directly to them
Sub-limits quietly maximised by hospitals
Inflated packages that exhaust coverage faster
High co-payments due to inflated base costs
Insurance decides what it will pay.Hospitals decide what they will charge.
And no app bridges that gap for the patient.
The Missing Piece: Advocacy, Not Automation
Healthcare costs don’t spiral because patients lack apps. They spiral because patients lack advocacy.
Advocacy means:
Someone sitting on the patient’s side of the table
Someone whose only incentive is reducing the patient’s final bill
Someone who negotiates before admission, when leverage exists
This is where technology reaches its natural limit. You can’t automate leverage.
Why Hospital Costs Must Be Addressed Before Admission
One of the biggest myths in healthcare is that hospital bills can be “fixed later.”
In reality, all leverage exists before admission.
Before admission:
Hospitals are competing for the case
Alternatives still exist
Packages are flexible
After admission:
Fear replaces choice
Switching costs explode
Negotiation becomes almost impossible
Most technology platforms operate during or after hospitalisation.Advocacy must happen before.
From Platforms to Patient Representation
This is where a new model becomes necessary.
Not another app. Not another dashboard. But representation.
Just as:
Insurers negotiate hospital rates
Corporates negotiate healthcare packages
Patients also need someone negotiating only for them.
This is the idea behind hospital broking.
How Health Samadhan Approaches the Problem Differently
Health Samadhan does not position itself as a healthcare platform.
It functions as a hospital broker for patients.
The approach is simple:
Step in before admission
Review the hospital estimate
Compare options across hospitals
Negotiate packages, inclusions, room categories, and non-payables
Optimise insurance usage
Reduce out-of-pocket costs
Most importantly, the incentives are aligned.
Health Samadhan:
Does not take money from hospitals
Does not earn referral fees
Gets paid only if the patient chooses to proceed and sees value
No savings. No fee.
That alignment is what technology alone cannot provide.
Why Advocacy Succeeds Where Technology Fails
Technology scales information. Advocacy rebalances power.
Technology improves efficiency .Advocacy improves fairness.
Technology helps you navigate the system. Advocacy changes your position within it.
In a market where prices are negotiated daily ,representation matters more than interfaces.
The Future of Healthcare Cost Control in India
The next evolution of Indian healthcare will not come from:
More apps
More cards
More schemes
It will come from restoring balance at the negotiation table.
Patients don’t need another platform telling them where to go.They need someone fighting for what they pay.
The future belongs to models that:
Reduce asymmetry
Eliminate conflicts of interest
Put real leverage in the hands of patients
That future is about advocacy — not automation.
Healthcare doesn’t need more technology pretending to be neutral.
It needs representation that openly chooses a side.
Because as long as hospitals negotiate and patients don’t,costs will never truly come down.
Advocacy — not apps — is how hospital pricing finally becomes fair.
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