SEA Health Tech Investment Insights

Gov't efforts at universal health coverage and digital health service delivery have had limited success High out-of-pocket health expenditures, particularly on medicines INSEAD National Social Health Insurance (PhilHealth): While the gov't has promised universal health coverage and sought to expand membership of national social health insurance programme PhilHealth, the out-of-pocket share of health expenditure remains the highest among SEA's five largest economies at 54% (compared to 37% in Indonesia and 12% in Thailand). PhilHealth-covered services focus on inpatient care, hence medicines are the main driver of out-of-pocket spending. Fragmented Pharma Retail: Filipinos mostly access medicines through private retail drugstores. Large drugstore chains have most of the market in big cities, while in other municipalities, medicines are mostly obtained from pharmacies operated by local pharmacists and physicians. While the emergence of generic medicine retailers in recent years has provided competition to large drugstore chains in the cities and helped to push prices down, the relative fragmentation of the sector has led to procurement inefficiencies and higher costs. Uneven implementation of gov't digital health efforts, including a health information exchange (HIE) eHealth Strategic Framework & Plan: The Department of Health's eHealth Strategic Framework & Plan (2014 – 2020) envisioned that by 2020, eHealth would enable widespread access to health care services and health information, but implementation has been lacking in part because fragmentation has prevented public healthcare system from leveraging procurement power to promote eHealth. Philippine Health Information Exchange (PHIE): A major issue in the Philippines' fragmented health system is the lack of a health information exchange allowing for the sharing of health data that would allow more efficient provision of private and public healthcare. Currently, health record management continues to follow a provider-centric model and still mostly uses paper records. While implementation of the PHIE, a component of the gov't's eHealth strategy began in 2016, it continues to be in a testing phase. Growing demand for imaging & diagnostic equipment to address chronic diseases Medical Equipment Demand Patterns: Notable trends include: (1) a shift in demand towards the value segment to contain healthcare costs, and (2) increased demand for imaging & diagnostic equipment resulting from rise in chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Sources: Various sources including WHO Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies; Foundation for Media Alternatives ("Health Information Exchanges & Data-Intensive Systems") 46

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