Why We Never Take Money From Hospitals (And Never Will)
- Khushi Berry
- Jan 10
- 4 min read
In Indian healthcare, money almost always changes hands behind the scenes.
Hospitals pay aggregators. Insurers pay brokers. Pharma sponsors platforms. Referral fees are normalised. “Partnerships” are rarely neutral.
When people hear that Health Samadhan does not accept money from hospitals, the reaction is usually one of disbelief.
How does that even work? Isn’t everyone incentivised by hospitals? What’s the catch?
There isn’t one.
We don’t take money from hospitals — and we never will — because the moment we do, the entire idea of patient representation collapses.
This isn’t a branding decision. It’s a structural one.
Healthcare doesn’t have a trust problem. It has an incentive problem.
Most healthcare platforms claim to be “patient-first.”Very few actually are.
The reason is simple: incentives decide behaviour.
If a platform earns money from hospitals, its loyalty is compromised — even if unintentionally. Hospitals care about bed occupancy, revenue per patient, package margins, and utilisation. Patients care about clarity, fairness, and out-of-pocket costs.
Those interests are not the same.
You cannot serve two masters in a negotiation.
The moment a hospital pays you, the patient becomes secondary.
Why hospital-funded models don’t work for patients
Many platforms claim they “help patients” while being funded by hospitals. What this usually means is:
Patients are routed to preferred hospitals
Pricing appears discounted but is pre-inflated
Negotiation is cosmetic, not structural
Choice is limited to partners, not best value
True alternatives are never shown
The patient believes they are saving money.The hospital ensures its margins remain untouched.
That’s not advocacy. That’s distribution.
A real patient-side model cannot exist if hospitals are paying the intermediary.
Negotiation only works when there’s no conflict
Hospital pricing is not emotional. It’s transactional.
Hospitals negotiate aggressively with insurers, TPAs, corporates, and government schemes because those entities have leverage, volume, and the ability to walk away.
Patients rarely do.
Health Samadhan exists to bring that leverage to patients. But leverage only works if hospitals know one thing clearly:
We do not work for them. We don’t bring guaranteed volumes. We don’t promise bed fills. We don’t accept referral fees. We don’t earn commissions.
That freedom allows us to negotiate without hesitation — or to walk away when pricing isn’t fair.
Why taking hospital money would destroy our core promise
Our promise is simple:
If we don’t reduce your hospital costs, you don’t pay us.
That promise becomes meaningless if we are earning from hospitals.
Imagine negotiating against a party that also funds you. Imagine claiming independence while depending on the counterparty. Imagine advising a patient while being paid by the hospital.
That is not representation. That is theatre.
Patients don’t need more theatre. They need alignment.
How our model actually works
Health Samadhan operates on a pure success-fee model.
We earn only when:
You hospitalise through a deal we negotiated, and
Your out-of-pocket cost is lower than what you would have paid otherwise
No savings = no fee.
We don’t charge upfront. We don’t charge consultation fees. We don’t charge “advice” fees.
If we can’t beat the deal you already have, you walk away.
This structure keeps us honest — and keeps patients protected.
Why hospitals respect this (even if they don’t like it)
Hospitals may not love patient-side broking, but they understand it.
They negotiate with insurers daily. They understand cost structures. They know pricing is flexible.
What’s new is that patients now show up informed, represented, and prepared to choose.
That changes the conversation.
Hospitals still get paid. Doctors still treat patients . Care remains unchanged.
Only the inefficiency disappears.
The real reason we’ll never change this
Taking money from hospitals would be easier.
It would scale faster.It would smooth conversations.It would increase margins.
But it would destroy the category we are building.
Health Samadhan is not another healthcare marketplace.It is not a lead-generation platform.It is not a hospital discovery app.
It is a patient-side financial advocate.
That role only works if patients trust us completely — and trust is impossible when incentives are split.
Why this matters more than ever
Healthcare costs are rising. Private hospitalisation is becoming more common .Insurance coverage is widening — but still incomplete.
Patients are paying more out of pocket than ever before.
In this environment, representation is not a luxury.It is a necessity.
And representation only works when the advocate answers to one side.
Who this is for
If you have a planned hospitalisation coming up — such as maternity, orthopaedics, general surgery, cardiac procedures, or any other elective treatment — this matters. These are decisions worth lakhs. They deserve the same scrutiny as real estate, investments, or insurance. Walking in alone is no longer the only option.
Give us the mandate. We’ll get you a better hospital deal — or you walk away.
No savings. No fee. That's our promise.
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