Healthcare providers in the region are getting a much-needed capital infusion. Today, many hospitals and clinics continue to be at the mercy of insurance claims, which can be often delayed by months, resulting in serious financial setbacks. To help provide the cash they need quickly, UAE-based fintech KLAIM has created a medical claim purchasing solution that is helping healthcare providers maintain a positive cash flow and continue providing high-quality medical services.
The solution is simple: KLAIM buys the medical claims of hospitals and clinics at a 5% discount, providing the healthcare institution with faster access to hard cash. The need for this kind of cash-in-hands capital service is soaring as more providers realise the benefits of medical invoice factoring as an alternative to bank loans, which are especially hard to access for smaller clinics and hospitals. In fact, healthcare is now the fifth-largest customer of the growing global invoice factoring industry.
To keep this healthcare capital solution growing, KLAIM has now secured a partnership with Knuru Capital, a venture capital firm in the UAE, whose goal is to help fintech firms scale their operations through access to smart capital.
With this partnership, Knuru Capital will provide KLAIM with an initial $5 million within an innovative securitised financing structure. This initial funding is expected to be complemented with funding from a pool of Sharia-compliant investors sourced by Knuru Capital, taking the total investment to $30 million.
“After one year since we did our first medical claim purchase transaction, we have now proven the business model and built a track record that institutional investors such as Knuru are very comfortable with,” said Karim Dakki, the CEO of KLAIM, in response to this new partnership. “We are ready to scale with large debt facilities or funds structures. The capital provided by Knuru Capital will help us further contribute to this stability, ensuring that people in the UAE and across the GCC have access to better and diversified healthcare.”
Medical invoice factoring and the financial stability of healthcare providers
As health insurance continues to take over from cash payment as the primary means of revenue generation for healthcare providers, the delay in receiving cash for invoices sent to insurance providers, has become more existential for them. With payment for medical claims taking up to 112 days in many cases, the financial stability of providers continues to be threatened.
In the UAE, KLAIM has been at the forefront of this embrace of medical invoice factoring. In its first twelve months of operations, it gathered over 12 million claims from 250 healthcare providers, a period during which it also formed partnerships with Etisalat, Al Khair Capital, among others.
By buying the claims of providers and providing them cash within 24 and 48 hours, KLAIM has enabled them to meet their operational expenses and sustain their business. Also, by taking upon itself the duty of collecting cash from insurers, it has helped providers focus on improving healthcare delivery rather than chasing receivables.
Increasing supply to meet increased demand
As more providers find KLAIM’s solution beneficial, the demand for it has been growing. This increased demand has necessitated the expansion of KLAIM – meeting more demands in the UAE and expanding into other GCC countries.
To meet up, KLAIM is now seeking further institutional debt and Series A equity financing.
Towards more partnerships
Healthcare expenditure in the UAE is growing due to changing demographics, availability of better healthcare facilities, the positioning of the UAE as a destination for medical tourism, among others.
It is, therefore, not surprising that about $5.4 billion worth of medical claims are generated in the UAE annually.
But with the tedious claim payment process resulting in delayed payment, providers will continue to suffer from cash flow drought except companies like KLAIM continue to stand in the gap, providing them with the cash they need.
The financial stability of healthcare providers is crucial to the improvement of healthcare delivery and the enhancement of patient experience. Therefore, the growth and expansion of KLAIM becomes important not just to providers but to the society as a whole.
To this end, KLAIM is not resting on its laurels with the Knuru Capital partnership. Instead, it is seeking to generate between $100 and $200 million to become the ATM of healthcare providers in the GCC region and contribute significantly to the improvement of the region’s healthcare sector.
