Yikang Medical Files IPO Prospectus After Securing Tens of Millions in Funding and Launching 'Registration Insurance' to Explore New Service and Monetization Pathways

“Healthcare services require a delivery platform. We envision all healthcare services being provided free of charge, with insurance serving as the most appropriate payer—a model that is already quite mature abroad,” He Peng, founder of Yikang Medical Consultation, told VCBeat.

Yikang Medical Care was established in March 2015. Its flagship product, the “Yikang Medical Care” app, is an O2O healthcare service platform based on mobile internet technology. Unlike the “asset-light” models adopted by many mobile health companies, Yikang Medical Care provides a one-stop, end-to-end service suite once patient needs are identified. This includes appointment scheduling, pre-consultation reminders, dedicated car pick-up and drop-off, advance issuance of laboratory test orders, medical accompaniment, medication pickup and delivery, and post-consultation follow-up care. The company emphasizes not only online user experience but also high-quality offline services.

As of now, on the hospital side, Yikang Medical has integrated all Grade 3A hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as over 90% of renowned hospitals in first-tier cities; on the user side, the number of registered users had reached 8 million by November 2017.

For Yikang Medical, a comprehensive healthcare service provider, this represents a considerable user base within the industry. Now, by partnering with Anxin Insurance to launch registration insurance, what benefits does this offer to users? What are the specific services included?

In early December, Yikang Medical partnered with Anxin Insurance to officially launch the “Anxin Yikang Registration Insurance,” offering users five key services: green-channel registration, premium consultation accompaniment, precise medical care, telephone doctor consultations, and expedited appointment scheduling.

Reflecting on the development of the “Anxin Yikang Registration Insurance,” He Peng remarked, “It was truly no easy feat.”

For platforms offering medical consultation services to collaborate with insurance institutions, they must first meet the insurers’ requirements regarding user base—namely, a massive user volume and an exceptionally high-quality service experience. Secondly, enterprises must obtain qualifications for insurance sales by registering with and undergoing review by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), which assesses corporate credentials, claims-paying capabilities, and other criteria. Only after passing the CIRC’s review and paying a substantial security deposit can these companies formally sell insurance products.

Finally, we collaborated with Anxin Insurance to develop an exclusive product—Appointment Registration Insurance—which proved to be the most challenging aspect of the entire process. Currently, insurance companies face a severe challenge: their product offerings are overly homogeneous, necessitating an upgrade in product services. As user needs become increasingly complex and expectations rise, the market is saturated with similar products. Consequently, insurers are striving to achieve breakthroughs through value-added services and innovative insurance products.

Therefore, as a novel insurance product that also offers high-value-added services with exceptional cost-effectiveness, registration insurance meets strong user demand for offerings such as consultation plans, green-channel medical access, post-consultation telephone follow-ups with family doctors, and comprehensive health management and physical examination services.

“We each leverage our respective strengths. In terms of products, we provide standardized services and oversee comprehensive service quality; in channel sales, insurance companies will exert full-channel efforts to deliver substantial benefits to users,” said He Peng.

However, the introduction of a new product requires cultivating user acceptance habits. For Yikang Medical Consultation, continuously optimizing product and service quality, enhancing user satisfaction, and meeting user needs are the most effective ways to help the sales team penetrate the market with minimal cost.

“During the initial phase, our wait-and-see approach to channel expansion will inevitably result in insufficient promotional intensity and slower market penetration. However, once sales channels are fully established, we stand to reap substantial dividends from the industrial chain.” He Peng expressed strong confidence in this outlook.

For healthcare service companies, the greatest core competitiveness lies in medical resources and the efficiency of their utilization. Without owning existing medical resources, Yikang Juyi significantly improves patients’ success rate in accessing medical care and enhances physicians’ work efficiency.

Internet healthcare companies have long grappled with challenges such as product implementation, integration with offline services, and ensuring service satisfaction. Yikang Medical Care was positioned from its inception as a comprehensive internet healthcare company that leverages offline services as its foundation to connect with online offerings.

Therefore, Yikang Medical Care holds inherent advantages in offline service quality, risk control, and service standardization. In terms of physician resources, it partners with numerous physician groups and has built an exclusive community of medical professionals to address users’ healthcare needs with maximum speed.

“This is also the reason we previously secured tens of millions of RMB in investment.”

In addition, Meinian Onehealth has made a strategic investment in Yikang Medical and established a comprehensive strategic partnership. Meinian Onehealth Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. operates more than 300 directly-owned health examination hospitals across over 200 cities in China. In 2017, it served 20 million customers, functioning as an integrated chain enterprise offering health examinations, health management, and health consulting services. This represents a significant source of traffic and user access.

Meanwhile, Yikang Medical has also joined “Health Intelligence Valley,” an initiative under Meinian Onehealth. Established in June 2014, Health Intelligence Valley leverages its affiliation with Tianyi Group and the medical service platform of “Meinian Onehealth.” It primarily incubates two types of enterprises: medical device companies related to health checkups, and companies focused on health management.

To accelerate cooperation and exchanges among enterprises within the park, Health Intelligence Valley will alsoIrregularly hosted salon events provide entrepreneurs with a range of third-party services, such as medical exhibitions and promotional support.

“We are also grateful for the services provided by Health Intelligence Valley, as the improvements have been significant both in terms of business operations and user growth,” said He Peng., “We leverage the backend of our integrated healthcare services—including prior insurance operations and online medical services—to conduct secondary user development and update health records with returned data. This facilitates patient triage between offline hospitals and users. We achieve profitability across multiple sectors, including finance, insurance, healthcare, physical examinations, and brick-and-mortar hospitals.”

Regarding the company's future plans, He Peng believes they can be described in four words: "Merger and Expansion."

Joint Venture: In the form of joint ventures, we will partner with Meinian Onehealth and resource providers to establish joint venture companies across China, securing strategic locations for market deployment.

And: Through mergers and acquisitions, we will carry out industry consolidation of same-line businesses nationwide;

Expansion: Rapid industrial expansion through external funding support and nationwide store partnerships with Meinian.

Expand: Expand collaboration with government agencies, non-profit organizations, and communities, adhering to a national government-oriented approach to support the development of social healthcare.