Ponea.com: The Online Marketplace that Offers Convenience, Discretion and Lower Cost of Healthcare

Michael Macharia, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at Ponea Health, the online healthcare marketplace made in Kenya, discusses competitive advantages.

“The value that Ponea brings to the table is around simplifying the system. We enable providers to become successful by offering them customer interface platforms that they can use to bring value and customers to them. Customers want service delivered to them and, when they go to a hospital, they want to be treated like in a hotel. In this sense, healthcare is not unlike the hospitality industry in that patients want better service. They want premium service without having to overpay for it. So, we have brought a level of transparency in our service providers. Regardless of the service costing $10 or $25, it does not mean that the $10 service is inferior. The outcome has to be the same. The $25 service may be complemented by a medical operator who has maybe billed infrastructure, whether it is for parking or Internet hotspots in the hospital. But maybe the patient does not need all that. It is like flying from Dubai to London. Some people fly first class and others economy, but they all land at the same time. Healthcare can also be looked at from that point of view. In our marketplace, you as a customer can make a decision based on price, based on quality levels of the provider, or ISO certification. Whatever interaction you have with a provider, that information remains with you as a patient. It means when you go to the provider, you do not have to start again from scratch because you already have the information. Because your provider of choice might be A today, but tomorrow it can be B or C. Our biggest competitive advantage is enabling providers to have visibility on our platform, simplifying their customer interaction ecosystem because we own it, and giving the customer control to decide where they want to go based on price, the financing model they use to pay, location, service and the convenience level they want as a patient”, says Michael Macharia.

ABOUT PONEA HEALTH: Ponea provides an online healthcare marketplace that offers convenience, discretion and lower cost of healthcare to africans living in urban areas. Ponea targets to consolidate 70% of private healthcare providers online to provide greater choice and access for patients, and more cost-efficient operations for providers from the marketplace enablers. Ponea enables expansion of private healthcare through enhanced distribution of medical services thus creating jobs and driving full employment of the scarce medical providers.

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