HYSET by Lokman Hekim - the 21st Century Care with Price Transparency on Offer
/HYSET - Online marketplace for medical services
HYSET, short for Her Yerde Saglik ve Elektronik Ticaret A.S. is a medical technology business based in Ankara, Turkey. The company operates an online marketplace for healthcare services. The operation is headquartered at Teknopark in Ankara. HYSET is owned and managed by Lokman Hekim, the largest private sector healthcare provider in the Capital.
Business — Patient side
HYSET medical marketplace provides patients with an online platform where they can match their care needs and requirements with those available in the network. The marketplace indeed puts medical practice in front of potential patients right where and when they require the services effectively reducing time spent to schedule doctor visits or secure prescriptions.
Business — Care providers side
On the supply side, the online marketplace is open to member hospitals, outpatient clinics and physicians that together form HYSET’s network of providers. Medical service providers in the network can schedule first time appointments, follow-up calls, manage shifts, and advertise the services they have on offer. The network also provides online aggregation for participating physicians and other medical professionals enabling convenient listings and scheduling.
The site — online marketplace
The online marketplace is up and running. Visitors and potential patients can browse to search and book services offered by participating care providers. The site currently attracts circa 1,000 visitors a day; this number should at least double by 2Q21. HYSET also manages a loyalty program online. Visitors who have accounts with the exchange place are offered rewards for any purchase they make or appointments they book online.
Services on offer
HYSET online exchange place for healthcare currently lists the following services on its site.
Check-up packages — three packages available on offer at member hospitals and clinics in Ankara, Antalya, Eskisehir, Istanbul and Van. Other towns will soon be added to portfolio.
Pregnancy/maternity services — three different packages by participating network hospitals in Ankara, Antalya and Istanbul. More towns will be added.
Esthetics and cosmetics procedures — nine different product categories and procedures on offer by hospitals and clinics in Ankara, Antalya, Eskisehir, Istanbul and Van.
Home care and senior care — four care-at-home and senior care service packages available at participating hospitals in Ankara.
Dietician services offered at Ankara and Antalya locations.
Online specialty care, telemedicine.
Unconventional medicine and therapy including acupuncture.
Supplementary products, probiotics, vitamins.
Procedures and services tailored to needs and requests.
Price transparency — work in progress
Price transparency is possibly the most challenging aspect of today’s healthcare industry and the practice of medical insurance. Consumers cannot make informed decisions because they do not see actual costs of medical services they require. There is compelling cross country evidence that cost and physician quality are uncorrelated. Higher price does not necessarily come with better quality healthcare.
HYSET online marketplace for medical services is an important venture in that it plans to provide care seekers full pricing transparency unprecedented in the industry. The patients browsing HYSET online marketplace can currently compare and contrast various products and care procedures offered by member hospitals in the network.
Comparison by pricing itself, currently unavailable, is work in progress. When the online price comparison feature is available, HYSET will furnish advance pricing by product and services supplied by member hospitals, outpatient clinics and individual physicians. If HYSET management executes the business plan fully, the patients will be able to see the quotes by service location or physician before they go ahead to book appointments or purchase care packages and services offered online.
A long runway of growth lies ahead
Near term. Recent trends in remote medical services across Turkey are strong driven by COVID related demand. HYSET is indeed experiencing better traffic online in 3Q20 than it did the same period last year and we would expect pace of growth to accelerate in December quarter.
Longer term. HYSET expects to reach out to a wider population and grow its network of service providers over the next three-to-five years. The online demand for healthcare services should remain a robust segment of the broader medical services industry with a long runway of growth ahead of it. The growth is driven not only by strong demographics on the demand side but also service availability on a vibrant and growing supply side.
Physicians as network members. The pandemic has put a lot of pressure especially on primary care physicians. Many are possibly eyeing partnerships with larger systems including technology firms. Medical practices with MedTech-focused business models and repositories of funding such as HYSET are likely to grow network of individual physicians and medical professionals and thrive their business.
HYSET’s reach and numbers. In terms of specific member count and the network itself, HYSET currently operates 6 Lokman Hekim locations and 12 other hospitals and outpatient clinics. The total accessible market in Turkish healthcare space is in excess of 600 private sector hospitals. We exclude state-run hospitals and healthcare clinics in TAM for now. HYSET should be able to add 10 hospitals and outpatient clinics to its network by the end of 2020 and additional 50 in 2021 and 200 in 2022.
What is in it for investors — exposure via Lokman
At the moment, exposure to HYSET can only be obtained through Lokman Hekim shares, listed on Borsa Istanbul. HYSET does not have any other investment vehicle providing exposure to its business.
Lokman Hekim invested TL500,000 in HYSET share capital when the latter was established in 2019 and currently owns 100% of HYSET’s equity.
HYSET balance sheet has no debt and the business is funded internally. The company does not currently have plans to raise any debt or equity.