PB Health to build 500 hospitals across India; raises USD 215M

PB Health plans to build a network of 500 hospitals through acquisitions, operations-and-management (O&M) agreements and asset-light partnerships, head of customer, brand & marketing Rasleen Kaur told Moneycontrol, marking one of the most ambitious attempts by an Indian insurance platform to integrate healthcare delivery with insurance services.

The healthcare venture backed by PB Fintech recently raised around $215 million and is in discussions to more capital, as it seeks to address “structural challenges” in India’s health insurance ecosystem, including claim disputes, opaque billing, unnecessary medical procedures and poor patient experience.

“We realised that if we were to actually control the experience of claims, we have to go deeper into this… we also have to have our own operations in hospitals,” Kaur said.

Around 150-200 hospitals are expected to be owned or operated by PB Health, Kaur said. The remaining will be part of a broader affiliated network through partnerships and management agreements, she said. The strategy mirrors hospital operators that manage healthcare facilities without necessarily owning the real estate.

The expansion marks PB Fintech’s biggest push beyond insurance distribution into healthcare delivery, as its company seeks to address what it believes are structural challenges in India’s health insurance ecosystem, including claim disputes, opaque billing, unnecessary medical procedures and poor patient experience.

More funds, hospitals
Management recently told investors that PB Health is in advanced stages of raising another round of capital, although the venture has so far utilised only a fraction of the funds already raised.

PB Health has begun building its presence in the Delhi-NCR market. A 240-bed hospital in Noida is operational, while another hospital in Gurugram is expected to begin operations shortly.

In the first phase, PB Health plans to set up five to six hospitals in the region, creating a network of around 1,200 beds over the next two years.

According to Kaur, the healthcare ecosystem often places hospitals, insurers and customers at odds with one another. Insurers worry about inflated bills and unnecessary procedures. Hospitals complain about delayed or rejected claims, while patients frequently find themselves caught in the middle, creating a trust deficit that has slowed the adoption of retail health insurance in India.

Integrating healthcare delivery with the insurance claims experience can help bridge this trust deficit, the company said.

Its hospitals will focus on transparent pricing, quicker discharges, dedicated claims support and the elimination of unnecessary treatments. Doctors will be employed on fixed salaries instead of revenue-linked incentive structures, with customer satisfaction forming an important performance metric.

The company also plans to deploy technology, offering app-based registrations, digital billing, treatment schedules, medication reminders and post-discharge care management.

The objective is to create what it says is a customer-centric hospital model, replacing the traditional approach in which processes and physician workflows take precedence over patient experience.

Alongside its owned and operated facilities, PB Health is building a broader preferred-care network under the PB Care+ brand, Kaur said. Customers will receive a streamlined treatment and claims experience across hundreds of partner hospitals. Some of the facilities could come under PB Health’s operational control through management agreements, enabling the company to expand without owning every facility, she said.

Kaur said the hospital venture was born out of the belief that greater control over treatment protocols and hospital operations can reduce unnecessary procedures, lower claims costs, improve billing transparency and strengthen trust in health insurance products. Moneycontrol