Indian patients demand transparency, willing to pay more for certified quality says FICCI & EY-Parthenon report

Hospitals

A vast majority of Indian patients are demanding more transparency in healthcare and are willing to pay a premium for certified quality, signaling a pivotal shift in a market long defined by cost-efficiency over clear performance metrics.

According to a new report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and EY-Parthenon, 83% of patients in India are seeking objective, accessible information to guide their healthcare choices. Nearly 90% of those surveyed said they would pay more for care from a certified, high-quality provider. The findings, outlined in the ‘True Accountable Care’ report released Thursday, underscore a growing clamour for a national framework that establishes clear quality standards, moving the system beyond informal, word-of-mouth-based decisions.

For decades, Indian patients have relied on proxies to gauge the quality of care. “Historically for us in India... patients are trying to use some form of informal proxies to figure this out,” said Akshay Ravi, a Partner in EY-Parthenon’s healthcare practice. “It could be saying, ‘Okay, now my family has always gotten treated with this doctor, which means he must be good,’ right?”

However, the landscape is changing. “What we have observed post-COVID is that there is increasingly an ask for more objective metrics or more, let us say, a credible source for how do I figure out like, is it really truly good quality,” Ravi added.

This demand for transparency comes as India’s healthcare system grapples with a paradox. On one hand, it is remarkably efficient, outranking global peers on the EY-Parthenon Healthcare Productivity and Performance (HPP) Index due to its significant cost advantages. Core price inflation has been kept to just 3-4% annually.

Yet, affordability remains a major hurdle. The report notes that the average cost of private hospitalization still exceeds the yearly consumption expenditure for nearly half of all Indian households. At the same time, returns on capital for hospitals average around 13%, below sectors like FMCG (25%). This creates a delicate balance where providers face cost pressures while patients struggle with out-of-pocket expenses.

The report argues that the path forward requires a coordinated, multi-pronged effort rather than tackling issues in isolation. It introduces a "7C framework" emphasizing clinical excellence, cost-consciousness, and consumer empowerment.

“The first essence is that we will absolutely have to focus on quality also today. And not just access and affordability because it will lead to an exponential increase in needs and you are risking your demographic dividend,” Ravi explained. “You will need a more integrated, coordinated and but at the same time bespoke approach... you need to simultaneously tackle these seven things in parallel.”

Establishing this new order will require systemic changes, including the creation of a central authority to define and enforce standards, similar to frameworks in the US or Saudi Arabia. With both patients and clinicians signaling readiness for change—nearly 90% of clinicians surveyed emphasized the importance of standardized pathways—the report suggests the foundation for India’s next healthcare leap is already in place.