Alipay Partners with Hengsheng Yuntai to Launch Integrated Healthcare Platform Connecting 1,500 Hospitals and 15 Health Tech Startups

5Month9Day,Ant FinancialAlipay, under its parent company, has partnered with Hangzhou Hengsheng Yuntai Network Technology Co., Ltd. to announce the launch of a one-stop service for individual users.“Medical Services”Platform.In addition to integrating existing services on Alipay, such as appointment registration and medical consultations,Users can also use this platform toGetHealthConsultation, Health Information,Maternal and InfantServices,HealthFinanceWait15Health Management Services。

On one end, it is building a cashless and online lifestyle for users; on the other, it is opening up to various industries and institutions to bring more services online. Since the beginning of this year, Ant Financial has increasingly taken on the characteristics of infrastructure. The healthcare sector has also become an important model for Ant Financial’s open-platform strategy.

From left: Yuan Yu, President of Hengsheng Yuntai; Wang Bo, General Manager of the Innovation and Intelligent Services Department at Ant Financial

Alipay’s foray into the “Internet + Healthcare” sector had long been foreshadowed. In 2014, Alipay launched its “Future Hospital” initiative, formally entering the healthcare and medical field through an open-platform approach. The initiative comprises three phases: the first phase assists hospitals in establishing mobile healthcare systems; the second phase aims to activate the entire healthcare service ecosystem, such as integrating social health insurance and commercial health insurance; and the third phase involves collaborating with ecosystem partners to build a big data–based health management platform, facilitating a shift from treatment-focused care to preventive care.

Over the past three years, more than1,500 Public HospitalsJoin Alipay's "Future Hospital," with cumulative services exceeding300 million visits, reducing patients’ consultation time by an average of 60% and helping to alleviate the burden on both doctors and patients. Regarding mobile medical insurance payments, in May last year, the Shenzhen Human Resources and Social Security Bureau partnered with Alipay to launch China’s first integrated mobile medical insurance payment service, enabling users to pay for both medical insurance-covered and out-of-pocket expenses with a single tap on their smartphones. Currently, Alipay has already collaborated withChinaReached an agreement on mobile payment integration with medical insurance.

A New One-Stop Health Service Platform Means Alipay“Future Hospital” Phase IIIalso began to test the waters.

From medical care to health preservation, and further to health management, public demand for health services has indeed surged this year. Data released in Alipay’s 2016 National User Statement shows that the number of users purchasing health supplements decreased by 4.6% compared with 2015, while the number of transactions for outdoor equipment rose by 24.7%, indicating that the fitness and sports boom has swept across Chinese cities.

Nowadays, tracking daily step counts via smartphones has even been regarded by many as one of the benchmarks for a healthy lifestyle. The market is unprecedentedly vibrant, with numerous personal health service apps already available on the market, catering to segmented user groups such as the general public, women and children, women specifically, and individuals with chronic diseases.

Wang Bo, General Manager of the Innovation and Intelligent Services Department at Ant Financial, delivers a speech on stage.

“Unlike other mobile healthcare service providers, Alipay focuses on building a platform, with all healthcare services and content sourced from partners and medical institutions,” said Wang Bo, General Manager of the Innovation and Intelligent Services Department at Ant Financial.Alipay’s healthcare service platform is open; partners with a strong reputation and brand recognition in the industry are welcome to join, provided they meet the access criteria, to deliver services to users.”

Yuan Yu, President of Hengsheng Yuntai, delivers a speech on stage

According to Yuan Yu, President of Hundsun Yuntai, as the sole co-builder of the “Medical Services” platform, Hundsun Yuntai is also one of the service providers on the platform. With its roots in the financial sector, Hundsun Yuntai’s internet healthcare solutions embody a distinct financial DNA.In fact, the technical standards in the financial sector are significantly higher than those in the healthcare industry. Previously, during the integration process of Alipay’s “Future Hospital” initiative,As partners, Hangsheng Yuntai has established a strong synergy in areas including product design, technical implementation, operational promotion, and resource expansion.。

Dr. Wang revealed,The platform has partnered with 15 organizations, spanning various sectors of specialized healthcare services.。

Appointment registration services are sourced from over 1,500 public hospitals previously integrated with Alipay and major appointment booking platforms. The “Ask a Doctor” service is provided by renowned domestic platforms such as AliHealth, WeDoctor, Haodf Online, and Mommy Knows. Intelligent pre-diagnosis was developed by Good Life Group based on the medical knowledge base of the Mayo Clinic. Organ donation services are provided by the China Organ Transplant Development Foundation. More institutions will participate in the future.

Will the entry of a company of Alipay’s scale into the healthcare sector “squeeze out” existing niche services and personal health management platforms? Wang Bo believes that there is no conflict between the two; rather, they share a symbiotic ecosystem in which each supports the other. Alipay not only opens its traffic gateway, which boasts 450 million real-name users, to partners but also standardizes and exports a suite of capabilities through the Ant Financial open platform.

For instance, although organ donation registration has been promoted for a long time in China with services available in many regions, the number of registrants has remained low. After the China Organ Transplant Development Foundation launched its service on Alipay, the platform’s real-name authentication feature lowered the barrier to registration, helped users understand the significance of donating, and enhanced trust. Within six months of launch, 180,000 people had completed registration, surpassing the total number of registrants from the previous seven years combined.

Chen Honglin, Brand Director of Xiaodoumiao, also endorsed the concept of a symbiotic ecosystem. She stated that Xiaodoumiao offers professional vaccination services, while Alipay provides platform advantages that can help Xiaodoumiao rapidly deliver high-quality vaccination services to more users across China.Over 10 months of collaboration, cumulatively serving nearly 400,000 Alipay users。

Wang Bo emphasized to reporters that this year, Ant Financial has infrastructure-ized its capabilities in payments, security, data, as well as its proprietary credit, financial, and anti-fraud technologies, making them available to its healthcare ecosystem partners.

Dr. Wang stated that the development of the medical service platform is a long-term process, currently in the phase of construction and exploration, with continuous improvements to be made. It is understood that Phase II of the medical service platform will introduce exercise and fitness services, such as step counting; in terms of content, it will feature science popularization articles, live streams, and other materials from experts and renowned medical institutions.