CEO Under Scan: Syed Aijazuddin, Acess Meditech Pvt.Ltd.

“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential”

Interviewed by: Dheeraj, Facilitator, The CEO Insights

In the market environment when corporate are paying high salary and are treating their employee as a King, why you opted for entrepreneurship?

I believe life is not all about making good money, it’s more about targeting & achieving success, being an entrepreneur it gives the freedom to explore new avenues.

What is your educational qualification and background? How is it helping you in the new venture?

I am a commerce graduate also specialized in Health Insurance from the America’s Health Insurance Plans, I am accredited with:

• Health Insurance Associate – HIA,
• Healthcare Customer Service Associate – HCSA
• Managed Healthcare Professional – MHP

My Specialization in Health Insurance gave me the opportunity to work for one of the leading insurance companies outside India that gave me both the educational background and the experience required adding on to my skills & expertise.

Your Details
Name	Syed Aijazuddin
Age	38 Years
Company Name & Designation	Acess Meditech Pvt.Ltd., Managing Director
Company Headquartered in	Hyderabad
Industry	Insurance
Education	Insurance Specialist
Former employer	Assist America Medical Emergency Services (I)Pvt.Ltd.
Former designation	Managing Director
Area of responsibility	Introduction of Assistance Product, Selling and Operations
Favorite book/movie	Fish by Stephen C.Lundin, Harry Paul & John Christensen
Hobbies	Watching action Movies

Today there is no dearth of business opportunities. The ideas have got wings. In such a scenario why you opted for this business? What all business ideas you had before starting this venture?

I wanted to start Health Insurance Company first, but since it required a lot of capital investment I could not implement it. My desire to be a part of Insurance industry, made me get involved and I decided to set up a venture that can simplify a lot of processes to make health insurance industry work with minimum paper work, hassle free for the patients to receive treatments and enabling profit making for the insurance companies.

Why did you zero down on this business idea?

I have worked in this industry for a long time of almost 15 years facing various turbulences, excitement and achievements at every stage of growth as a part of experience. It’s my passion to be a part of Health Insurance industry.

Please tell us about the background of your company?

Acess Meditech Pvt. Ltd (AMTPL) specializes in insurance industry specific solutions spanning every step in claims management; from data entry to claims adjudication, to contact service center with its specially designed software- Web Claims Management Software (WCMS) interlinked with Smart Card Technology to help Insurance Carriers and Third Party Administrators – (TPA) improve the quality of claims management while reducing the overall process and cost involved. The developers and visionaries of AMTPL have been working on their product called WCMS since January 2005, which is being designed on the basis of the experience of the developers to fulfill the Insurance specific needs.

The company had got registered on 28^th of March 2007 having the partnership deal signed on April 16^th 2007. Acess Meditech Private Limited has made his presence in the Saudi market in a very short span of time. AMTPL signed its first contract on 17^th of February 2008 with its first client called ACIG (Allied Co-operative Insurance Group) that is one of the leading players in Saudi insurance market in competition with its competitor-a web portal based in Saudi whose core activity is moving data from the hospital to the insurance company and vice versa. AMTPL is currently involved with the training and implementation process for its client and is focused on to enhance its software in accordance to its clients needs.

What are your business objectives?

Our objectives are:

1. To hold 30% of the Claims Management software Saudi Arabian market for the Insurance industry by January of 2010.

2. To see a positive ROI by January 2010.

3. To hold 22% of the Claims Management software market for the Smart Card technology by January of 2010.

4. To hold 20% of the software market for the Hospital Management services industries by January 2010.

5. Customize the software to the individual needs of each client.

6. Provide training and follow-up service to each client.

What is your business model? How many revenue streams are being targeted and how?

AMTPL is the leading providers of business process outsourcing services for medical insurance and third party administrator companies. The User friendly Web Claims Management System (WCMS) Software has been designed to simplify member enrollment, premium billing of claims, uploading claims processing which is flexible, scalable and robust enough to meet the aggressive demands of rapidly growing health insurance market for the Middle-East and world-wide.

Medical Insurance is now compulsory in the Middle East and only in Saudi Arabia it’s a market of SR.9 Billion or (USD 2.4 Billion) for all the expatriates, and claims arising out of the medical insurance runs in Million of paper work everyday. All the insurance companies or the Third Party Administrators (TPA’s) have a desk top basic system, which means, they will require a lot of qualified man power in addition to lot of manual intervention by the staff. Getting qualified manpower is a big issue and cost involved is high. AMTPL’s WCMS will meet the need of Insurance companies and TPA’s. We plan to generate revenues by licensing clients to use the software in return for an agreed price and also in terms of annual maintenance contract.

What are the services being offered by your company? How are they different from your competitors?

AMTPL is different in its services with its comprehensive sophisticated software, which is web-enabled on par to serve the customers. We are different and the only one in the Middle East with our Smart Card Program. WCMS is highly secured by SSL Certification with 128bit encryption by that and at the user level. Our SMS model immediately notifies the member whenever their approval has been processed along with the approval details. All hospital data, i.e., the pricing, diagnosis codes (ICD’s) services, supplies etc. is validated at the hospital end, before the approval is send to the insurance company. It’s easier and quicker for the insurance companies to process the approval, based on the client experience, it hardly takes less then 5mts to process and send an approval to the provider, against the present practice of min. 3 hrs (the quickest) to a week. We help our clients to analyze their loss ratios and risk factors through the statistical underwriting and claims reports generated by the automated software. WCMS Software can generate Claims reports based on payment per provider, Utilization reports, Risk profile report, policy member details report, member addition and deletion report.

The providers are given access to Online Member Eligibility verification, List of Group Free Admission Advise for all companies and their classes appointed for preferred hospitals, that can be retrieved till the policy expiry, Authentication of member & coverage, Approval Submission, Approval Response, Approval Status, Claims Batch Creation and Claims Submission through the usage of our cut through state of art software. The Software technology is embedded and linked with the Smart Card technology wherein the Benefit providers can check the member eligibility, send approvals and check for approval status by reading the Smart Cards issued by the Insurance Companies to the members. AMTPL also allows clients of the Insurance Companies to log directly to the web enter their additions/deletions, verify members, print list of appointed providers etc.

Who are your major competitors?

Presently the company doesn’t have any competitors in India directly. The only competition we have is a web portal based in Saudi – but their core activity is moving data from the hospital to the insurance company and vice versa. They charge the insurance companies and the hospital for every transaction and their services are not personalized for the insurance companies or the hospitals. Because of the charge on every transaction Insurance companies and hospitals are not willing to use the portal. AMTPL doesn’t charge the hospitals at all. AMTPL charges only the Insurance company and that also not on each transaction but on each member insured a flat amount, which is very attractive for both the Insurance companies and the hospitals to use our WCMS.

Do you undertake any kind of outsourcing work?

We want to be pioneers in Claims Management Systems by capturing the market with our unique Web based Claims Management Software (WCMS) and plan to outsource business from Insurance Companies, Benefit Providers, Third Party Administrators, Hospital Management Organization (HMO) /Managed Care Organization’s (MCO’s)

Who are your partners? How are they supportive in the growth of your company?

Mr. Sharif Ouahib is the partner who hails from hospitality industry with 25 years of solid Insurance background. He was a partner in one of the leading Insurance Company in Saudi Arabia. He has to his credits being the first company in Saudi Arabia to introduce direct billing (cashless) with the hospitals. He is considered a pioneer among the insurance industry for his innovations and customer service. He is being supportive in the growth of the Company by creating Business Opportunities in the Middle East Market.

What kind of background and domain expertise you look for in your employees?

AMTPL looks for people with Insurance and Medical background with the instinctive budding minds filled with creative ideas with minimum 4 years of experience and expertise required accordingly to their job profiles.

What are the different finance options you have? Do you look for more?

We plan to generate revenues by licensing clients to use the software in return for an agreed price and also in terms of annual maintenance contract charging for our services inclusive of all taxes. We also plan to generate revenues by selling the various versions of WCMS Software. We are looking forward for investors who can benefit from the potential of our business concept. We consider and expect respect, trust, and integrity to be essential in all our dealings to achieve highest Customer Satisfaction. YES, we are looking for more options to this effect.

How do you see this present economic downturn? Is it affecting your business?

The present economic downturn is indeed an inescapable scenario, which has affected almost all arenas of different professions and eventually when Top notch Companies are getting effected then its symbiotic for others too.

What are your future plans? How do you see your company evolving in the next five years?

We aim to accomplish and achieve our set targets for the next two years. We plan to work for the advanced versions of our Software in order to provide a complete package for the Insurance specific processes incorporating the new technological advancements along with Smart Cards. In the next five years, AMTPL will have a strong hold in the Middle East market simultaneously exploring the Indian and Other markets too.

Please comment on the strategies your company is adopting to capture a higher market share amidst stiff competition?

As we do not have a stiff competition in Saudi market, our strategy is to charge the Insurance Company on each member insured a flat amount, which is very attractive for both the Insurance companies and the hospitals to use our WCMS.

Are you considering any strategic alliance or other measures to augment your market reach or business capabilities?

YES, we are looking forward to strategic alliances for Indian and other Middle East Markets.

Who is your role model?

My parents are my role model who has provided me the best of upbringing guiding me through at every stage of my life to help me unfold my potential capabilities in the best possible manner. ....