Alaga Health enables patients to buy health products and book virtual & in-person health services conducted by MSME, NGO & government healthcare providers in one integrated mobile & web platform
Current Status
Alaga Health has entered the market as an industry disruptor that works with NGOs, MSMEs, and government to serve as a viable alternative to Health Management Organizations (HMOs) and a more affordable access point for the entire spectrum of health service within the health journey of over 500,000 patients being onboarded through our different partner patient institutions.
Market
Today, 68% of all deaths in the Philippines are because of NCDs, a near parallel to the 6 in 10 who pass away without seeing a health professional. With the probability of Filipinos within the ages of 15 and 64 dying prematurely from one of the 4 main NCDs (heart diseases, diabetes, chronic lung disease, cancer) increasing to 29%, the Filipino working-age group is our target market. However, taking into account that 22% of the total health expenditure of the country is spent on and by Filipinos aged 65 and above, the elderly population are our secondary customers.
In terms of buyer personas, we characterize our target market as yuppies in their 20s kickstarting their careers and middle-aged mothers taking care of their families. Both are substantially busy and price-sensitive groups who care about the cost and convenience of receiving health care conveniently within the closest proximity possible.
They juxtaposed alongside our providers who are health professionals struggling to establish their medical practice or launch their health careers in a crowded and expensive market. The cost of setting up a clinic, the difficulty of finding vacancies in hospitals, and the challenge of sustaining income & career progression take their toll.
In the Philippines, 6 in 10 Filipinos pass away without seeing a health professional while 8 to 10 Filipinos have never had a medical check-up. Following the Commission on Population & Development (POPCOM) estimate of 109 million Filipinos in 2020, this translates to 65 and 87 million Filipinos, respectively.
Taking into account that roughly 6 in 10 Filipinos are between 15 to 64 years old and almost 1 in 10 is older than 64 years old, the World Health Organization, UN Interagency Task Force on NCDs, UNDP, and the Department of Health affirm that the country loses 4.8% of our annual GDP to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) per year of which Php 75.7 billion and Php 680 billion annually are directly and indirectly lost due to reduced workforce & reduced productivity.
Given that 80.2% of Filipinos between the ages of 15 to 64 have access to digital commerce services and that they spend an average of 4 hours and 15 minutes a day on social media, the vision of Alaga Health of creating the first digital health marketplace and service hub in the Philippines is not only viable but necessary to ensure the achievement of #HealthForAll.
Problem or Opportunity
Alaga Health, as the first digital health marketplace and service hub in the Philippines, hopes to save the 6 in 10 Filipinos who die without seeing a health professional through the use of mobile and web applications that make healthcare available anytime, everywhere, every way.
Alaga Health wants to give back to every Filipino the power to choose where, when, and how they receive (and provide) health care. By building a digital health marketplace and giving small health providers access to technology that can expand or optimize their practice, we can and will achieve health for all.
Solution (product or service)
Alaga Health gives patients and healthcare providers end-to-end access to virtual & in-person health services (telehealth, home care, clinic appointments, company health packages, laboratory tests, e-learning for health & health goods delivery) offered by MSME, NGO & government healthcare service providers on a unified platform, as opposed to other healthcare startups which only specialize in disjunct subsets of these services, only feature their own health professionals/brands/products, and/or have limited entry points for MSME, government & NGO services.
Competitors
We have conducted a marketing analysis and benchmarking to profile competitors according to size, customer base, number of health providers, and investors. According to our data, our closest competitors are HealthNow (4 features) and Qure (4 features) due to their similar all-in-one promise.
However, we also consider KonsultaMD, SeriousMD, Aide, and SeeYouDoc as competitors since their businesses involve at least 1 of the 7 features offered by our social enterprise.
Advantages or differentiators
While we consider the aforementioned as competitors, our approach of being marketplace in lieu of being a sole health service provider allows us to potentially collaborate with them to mutually amplify our reach. Still, our primary targets are the hundreds of small unknown or hyper-localized health providers hoping to earn honest work as health professionals or small health companies.
While most of them have higher social media followings, we boast the highest engagement rate (80.2%) and near-universal positive online interactions This is primarily fueled by the support of our community-based alliances in civil society. Given the number of features to be made available by Alaga Health soon (4) during our first full release vis a vis our competitors (4), we look forward to exciting times ahead.
Finance
Customers are charged a commission fee (15-20%) on top of the published price indicated by the health service provider. This covers the payment to our partner payment API and a mark-up by the company. Partner health service providers onboarded during our beta testing and initial launch are charged a smaller fee (10-15%) in contrast to those set to be onboarded later.
The commission-based revenue shall apply to all features provided by the company. Advertisements to be run within the platform are set to be calculated on a per-second basis while data trend sets will be based on variables and duration.
Business model
Alaga Health, following a B2B2C and B2G2C model, primarily earns from the commission payments received from every successfully completed health service (telehealth, clinic visit, laboratory test, home care) delivery transaction. It also earns from advertisements & promotional fees, the sale of meta data (NOT personal data), and a unique pooled patient system.
Money will be spent on
The amount invested will be used on an aggressive marketing, distribution, and partner onboarding campaign alongside rapid technological refinement of the platform for UI/UX optimization. A larger and more secure physical server shall also be prioritized for procurement to scale up our operations more effectively.
Offer for investor
Alaga Health hopes to enter into SAFE agreements or royalty agreements with interested investors.
Given that the market is very attractive, barriers to entry are low. Hence, our approach is to serve as the unifying platform that harnesses the spike in interest in automated, electronic, optimized, and/or digitalized health care services.
Accelerator Program - Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (via UN Development Programme, Australian Embassy, and PhilDev Foundation) - IdeaSpace Foundation Accelerator - Dream Bigger Ventures (ongoing)
Start-up School - Y Combinator Start-up School - Amplify by Accelerating Asia
Won the competition and other awards
- 1 of Top 3 start-ups, makesense Health4All Sprint - 1 of Top 8 start-ups, Innovation for Social Impact Partnership Grant Facility - Finalist, Impact Hackathon (Largest Hackathon in the Philippines)
Invention/Patent
We have filed for copywriting our brand and are in the process of filing our patent for our integrated solution.
