Sarovah Healthcare is a healthcare cooperative. A Nonprofit Initiative to ensure ethical, honest and affordable healthcare for the people. We also call it Community Owned Healthcare Initiative.
“Community Owned” means that the community funds and owns its own hospitals & healthcare infrastructure under the guidance of healthcare professionals, doctors and industry veterans.
Because the community owns its own hospitals it can vote for the policy decisions. The community can ensure that the system is designed to care for the patients. The system is honest and the system respects the ethics of healthcare.
This also allows the doctors and healthcare workers the freedom to practice ethical healthcare. Because they are not under any pressure from the corporate system to maximize profits at the cost of healthcare ethics.
Doctors and Healthcare workers get the freedom to practice what they truly love. Which is to heal patients & care for them.
Unlike traditional communities we at sarovah healthcare embrace modern technology. Members can use our mobile app to vote for decisions, organize offline meetups, discussions within the community happen on our mobile app, our app has a finance tracker where members can track how the community funds are spent with proper photo and video evidence.
Booking Doctor Appointments, tests & scans, health records and more also happen through our mobile app.
Use of Technology ensure’s that community remains truly democratic where each and every member can raise & discuss their concerns with the community. It also helps ensure that the community remains financially transparent and bureaucracy is eliminated.
Legally the community is registered as a Nonprofit Cooperative Organization. When you join our community you become the member of this cooperative society.
Not every cooperative is a Nonprofit but ours is a Nonprofit by choice.
The staff is paid on a salary basis. But the community does not generate any profits or surplus for its members. This is done intentionally to ensure that there are no compromises in the ethics of healthcare.
In this section we will see membership plans and payment structures.
This fee provides the investment required to build hospitals and buy expensive medical equipment. This is paid only once. (CAPEX - Capital Expenditure)
Once you pay this fee you become the owner of the Community hospitals. You can now vote with your community for policy & management decisions of your hospitals because you are the owner.
This fee is transferable which means if you’re moving to another city or want to leave the community for any reason. You can apply for membership transfer. Your membership will be transferred to a new member and you will get a refund.
Members can choose to pay for their healthcare needs using one of the two following options. This helps us recover the operational costs of the hospital & pay salaries to the hospital staff.
In business terminology we call it OPEX - Operational Expenditure.
Members can choose to pay out of pocket.
Members can expect to save 50 - 70 % in their hospital bills compared to private healthcare. Please see the full price comparison chart for estimated member prices and how member prices differ from market prices.
The prices for members are much lower and affordable than private hospitals because we only recover the operating costs. The cost for hospital building and expensive equipment has already been paid for. And due to Nonprofit legal structure nature we dont have profit obligations.
Please note that our hospitals won’t provide healthcare to Non-Members even at higher market prices. This is done to maintain quality standards and avoid over-crowding in hospitals.
Members can choose to opt for a yearly subscription of Rs. 10000 per year.
This subscription covers almost all healthcare needs - doctor consultations, OPD, Medicines, Scans like - MRI / CT/ Ultrasound / X-Ray, Pathology tests like CBC, Lipid Profile, etc, IPD & ICU admission’s, and even surgeries
Subscription prices can vary with age, health conditions but it will always be more affordable than private healthcare.
For private health insurance. The more claims they deny the higher profits they make. So they are always looking for an excuse to deny a claim.
Your community hospital is a nonprofit. When we receive 100 rupees from our members. We are obligated to spend that entire 100 rupees on members' healthcare. We don't need to save that money to generate profits for our shareholders.
Unlike private insurance there is no complicated discharge procedure - you get discharged immediately after any health procedure.
If you’re having difficulty deciding which option you want to go for. You can join the community and decide later. There is no pressure on members to make a choice at the time of joining. You can decide the options anytime and switch between the options as you like.
It is estimated that members can save roughly 50 -70 % in hospital bills when compared to private hospitals. Let us see a approximate comparison of the cost differences.
Note : These savings do not come from paying lower salaries to doctors and staff. These savings come primarily due to Nonprofit structure and at cost pricing.
| Procedure | Private Hospital Rate | Cooperative Member Rate | Savings | Discount % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Delivery | ₹60,000 – ₹80,000 | ₹25,000 | ₹45,000 | ~65% |
| C-Section Delivery | ₹1,00,000 – ₹1,30,000 | ₹45,000 | ₹70,000 | ~60% |
| Cataract Surgery (Mono) | ₹40,000 – ₹60,000 | ₹15,000 | ₹35,000 | ~75% |
| Laparoscopic Chole (Gallbladder) | ₹1,20,000 – ₹1,50,000 | ₹50,000 | ₹85,000 | ~65% |
| Angioplasty (Single Stent) | ₹2,50,000 – ₹3,50,000 | ₹1,10,000 | ₹1,90,000 | ~60% |
| Scan Type | Private Rate | Cooperative Member Rate | Savings (INR) | Savings % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MRI Brain (Single) | ₹7,000 – ₹9,000 | ₹2,200 – ₹2,800 | ₹5,500 | ~70% |
| CT Brain (Single) | ₹3,500 – ₹5,000 | ₹1,100 – ₹1,400 | ₹3,000 | ~75% |
| USG (Ultrasound) | ₹1,500 – ₹2,500 | ₹500 – ₹700 | ₹1,300 | ~70% |
| X-Ray (Chest) | ₹500 – ₹800 | ₹150 – ₹200 | ₹500 | ~75% |
| Whole Body CT | ₹15,000 – ₹18,000 | ₹4,500 – ₹5,500 | ₹11,500 | ~70% |
| Whole Body MRI | ₹20,000 – ₹23,000 | ₹7,000 – ₹8,500 | ₹14,000 | ~65% |
| Bed / Service Category | Market Rate (Private) | Cooperative "Member" Rate | Savings (INR) | Discount % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICU / CCU Bed (Full Care) | ₹22,000 | ₹7,500 | ₹14,500 | ~66% |
| NICU Bed (Neonatal ICU) | ₹15,000 | ₹5,000 | ₹10,000 | ~66% |
| General Ward Bed | ₹2,500 | ₹800 | ₹1,700 | ~68% |
| Private AC Room | ₹9,500 | ₹3,200 | ₹6,300 | ~66% |
| Service | Market Rate (Private) | Cooperative "Member" Rate | Savings | Discount % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dialysis (Single Session) | ₹3,500 | ₹1,100 | ₹2,400 | 68% |
| Chemotherapy (Session Fee) | ₹5,000 | ₹1,500 | ₹3,500 | 70% |
| Physiotherapy Session | ₹800 | ₹250 | ₹550 | 68% |
| Daycare Bed (6 Hours) | ₹2,000 | ₹500 | ₹1,500 | 75% |
Our members can expect to save roughly 50 - 70 % in their hospital bills.
We pay best in class salaries to our doctors to attract the best talent and we have world class medical facilities in our hospitals. So you may wonder how we can provide world class healthcare at such low and affordable costs ?
There are many reasons for that. Let us discuss them below.
Building hospitals is expensive and it needs very high capital investment. A 100 bed hospital roughly costs about rupees 60-90 crores to build in India in 2026. Most private hospitals raise this money either through Debt (Loans) or through Investors. If they take loans they have to pay high interest rates. If they raise money through investors they have to give huge margins to investors.
When you get a bill in a private hospital that bill includes the cost of loan interest or investor margins.
In our community hospital a member pays a one time joining fee. This one time fee provides the money needed to build our hospitals. We don't have to pay any interest on the loans and any margin to investors. We pass on these benefits to the members as a reduction in their Hospital bills.
A private hospital needs a high marketing budget to attract customers into the hospital and they need marketing on a regular basis.
In a community owned hospital our marketing costs are low. A community hospital already has thousands of members. The members have already paid money to build their own hospital. They are the owners of the hospital. Do we have to convince the owners to use their own hospital ? The answer is obvious.
Your private hospital bill includes added marketing costs. We pass on savings in marketing costs to our members as a reduction in hospital bills.
It is a well known fact that most private hospitals pay external doctors some commissions to refer customers to their hospitals or labs. Community hospitals do not need to pay commission to external doctors to refer patients to our hospitals. There are two reasons.
Reason 1 : We don't take outside (non-member) patients in our hospital to ensure that our hospitals are not overcrowded. Our hospitals give treatment only to members. Because we don't take outside patients we don't have to pay any referral commission to external doctors.
Reason 2 : Our hospitals are self-sufficient with all medical facilities. All the healthcare needs of the members are fully covered in our hospital. So all the referrals in our hospital are internal referrals. Members don't need to get referred from outside to get treatment in our hospital.
Your private hospital bills include referral commissions. We don't have to pay referral commissions so we pass on the savings to our members.
We are legally registered as a Nonprofit Cooperative Organization. We don't have any obligation to generate any profits for our shareholders or owners. The owners are the members like you and members are not asking for any profits. Our members only ask for good quality healthcare.
Your private hospital bill includes the profits for shareholders of the hospital. We use part of our income to invest in the latest medical technology. And we pass on rest as savings to our members.
We are a legally registered Nonprofit Cooperative Society. So we are exempt from some corporate taxes as per the "Doctrine of Mutuality".
We pass on the tax savings as a reduction in hospital bills to our members.
Even if a hospital is built by a Nonprofit trust. Sometimes they get benefits from governments in the form of discounted land. These hospitals are legally bound to reserve some of their capacity to government quota patients.
In order to provide free healthcare to the government quota patients they have to charge higher costs to the non-quota patients.
We don't ask the government for favors like discounted land. So we don't have to reserve any special government quota. We pass on the savings to our members.
Due to revenue and profit targets in private hospitals. They don't focus on preventative care.
Let us understand this with an example. Sometimes a simple “homocysteine test” which costs 300-500 rupees can detect early signs of heart problems which may need expensive heart surgery costing lakhs in future. When a patient is made aware of the problems in advance, the patient can take measures to prevent problems in future.
In community hospitals doctors are encouraged to provide preventative care. This ensures that members don't have to go through expensive surgeries in future which can be prevented if problems are detected in early stages.
What members save from preventative care cannot be measured in money. It's more than money. It's emotional and even psychological.
Not all Private Hospitals are corrupt. But there is an increasing trend of fraud and inflated pricing. A cooperative which is also a Nonprofit has zero incentive to commit pricing fraud & inflate hospital bills. The staff is paid a fixed salary. They would get nothing out of inflated bills. If you take this into account. The savings will increase further.
Savings due to different factors are summarized into a table.
| Benefit Category | Estimated Saving (%) | Why it Saves |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Servicing Cost | 10% – 15% | Eliminates high interest on bank loans and high margins for private investors by using interest-free member joining fees. |
| Marketing Costs | 8% – 10% | Removes the need for a high marketing budget, ads, and PR to attract "customers," as owners are the members. |
| Referral Commissions | 10% – 15% | Eliminates "cut practice" or commissions paid to external doctors by treating only members in a self-sufficient facility. |
| No-Profit Margin | 15% – 20% | Removes the profit targets required for shareholders; income is instead used for tech reinvestment or passed to members. |
| Corporate Taxes | 3% – 5% | Leverages the "Doctrine of Mutuality" to exempt the cooperative from certain corporate taxes that private hospitals must pay. |
| Charity Quota Loading | 10% – 12% | Avoids overcharging "paying" patients to cross-subsidize 20% free/concessional government-mandated beds. |
| Preventative Care | Varies (High) | Reduces long-term costs by detecting problems early (e.g., via homocysteine tests), preventing expensive future surgeries. |
| Total Savings | 50% - 70 % | Members are estimated to save 50% to 70% over private hospital bills. |