Apollo Hospitals' insurance arm targets nationwide rollout by FY27

Apollo's insurance vertical, which began operations in mid-2025 and is currently active in NCR and Hyderabad, is seeing “very good traction,” Madhivanan said, speaking during post-Q2 FY26 earnings call on November 7. 

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) is scaling up its insurance business under the Apollo 24/7 vertical, with plans to deepen its presence digitally and through call centre-assisted models before taking select products offline by FY27, said Madhivanan B, President, Apollo HealthCo.

The insurance vertical, which began operations in mid-2025 and is currently active in NCR and Hyderabad, is seeing “very good traction,” Madhivanan said, speaking during post-Q2 FY26 earnings call on November 7.

“We are building a 500-seat call centre (300 operational currently) to support marketing, while avoiding field-based selling,” he added, noting that Apollo is promoting an EMI-driven insurance model to make premiums more affordable for retail customers.

Apollo intends to leverage its 4.4 crore registered users on Apollo 24/7 and its 1 crore-plus high-value customers for the initial phase of insurance sales. “Our first attempt is to sell digitally. A small-ticket item sells very well online, but for higher ticket sizes of Rs 20,000-30,000, people seek assistance. That’s where our call centre capability comes in,” Madhivanan explained.

The company’s insurance plans are primarily health-focused, with pilots underway to integrate life and wellness products. “We have completed some of the integration with the health side and are exploring life,” Madhivanan said.

While digital and call centre channels will form the core of the insurance expansion strategy, Apollo also plans to pilot select micro-insurance products such as vector and personal accident covers through its physical pharmacy network. “We may identify about 1,000 outlets out of our 7,000 pharmacies for this under the POSP model, without adding to manpower costs,” he added.

Apollo’s insurance business currently contributes a small portion to Apollo 24/7’s GMV, but management expects it to scale up meaningfully from Q4 FY26, as the gross written premium (GWP) base expands. Madhivanan noted that the insurance business operates on a gross written premium model, similar to the GMV concept used in financial services, and said Apollo is targeting steady quarter-on-quarter growth in premium collection as new products are rolled out.

The company reiterated its goal of achieving cost breakeven for Apollo 24/7 by end-FY26, though Madhivanan admitted there “might be a hiccup” given incremental investment in the insurance vertical. “We are on course… insurance will take a little more time, but it will start contributing to profitability in a disproportionate sense once it breaks even,” he said.

Apollo 24/7 continues to target 25–30 percent annual growth, led by its e-pharmacy, diagnostics, hospital consultations, and insurance segments. The pharmacy business contributes about 55–60 percent of the total GMV, while diagnostics and consults have already turned positive at a CM1 (contribution margin) level.

During the September quarter, Apollo’s Healthcare Services business delivered a 9 percent year-on-year revenue growth to Rs 3,169 crore, driven largely by insurance and cash-paying patients, who together accounted for 86 percent of inpatient hospital revenue.

Addressing queries around industry expectations of stable insurance pricing in FY26, A Krishnan, Group CFO, clarified that Apollo’s insurance contracts are typically renewed every two years. “Certain contracts will come up for renewal this year, others next year. So it’s a rolling renewal system,” he said, adding that while medical inflation is annual, price resets are biennial.