THE INSTINCT OF EXPERIENCE 

Aetna India’s Anurag Khosla is building a next metaphor of healthcare on the pillars of phygital, AI and the raw gut insight. 

MEET THE LEADER 

Anurag Khosla is the CEO of Aetna India – A CVS Health Company that’s building a healthier world by providing individuals, employers, health care professionals and producers with innovative benefits, products and services. 

BACKSTORY

Anurag joined Aetna India in November 2020 as the CEO, where he currently oversees all aspects of business and represents Aetna in India. Anurag brings in two decades of experience in healthcare IT solutions and services, working in high growth technology led businesses. Previously, Anurag served as the Managing Director of Optum Global Solutions (India) Pvt. Limited, which is the IT services business unit of United Health Group. In this assignment, he was responsible for conceiving the business model and subsequently scaling it to become a leading global healthcare IT business generating over $1Bn in revenues. Anurag is a post-graduate from the Indian School of Business and Kellogg’s School of Management, Chicago and holds a Corporate Development & Competitive Marketing Strategies Certificate from Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

SUCCESS MANTRA 

We trigger-off the interface by trying the decode the persona beneath the personality. What are the core beliefs that define the man? What are the codes that design his DNA? Anurag sets the tone for the rest of the meeting with a firm and conviction-laden answer...

“I firmly believe that a true leader is one who creates more leaders rather than followers. My mantra is to develop people around me to take important roles and make the difference. I try to lead my team in an unbiased manner and provide equal opportunities of growth and development to my colleagues irrespective of their gender, caste, creed or religion. I try to set examples for my colleagues to take inspiration from.”

THE DRIVING FORCE

Every passionate leader is propelled by the power of a bigger vision. What is that in Anurag’s case? What, in short, is the one big idea or concept that drives his dream and makes him wake up every morning? The dynamic idea champion reflects and reveals… 

“I believe in living a purpose driven life and apply the same approach to leadership i.e. ‘Leading with purpose’.  The most sincere and fulfilling way to bring out the best in a team is to unite them around a meaningful purpose.

At vHealth by Aetna, we’re very fortunate to work towards a critical vision of ‘enabling access to high quality, affordable healthcare across the country’.

I am confident that we can achieve this by bringing the best in technology, clinical excellence and high quality provider network together by creating an integrated healthcare ecosystem for our customers. We (at vHealth) as a team are committed towards this vision and have made good progress this far.”

JOURNEY AND EVOLUTION 

We move onto the intersection of forces that have moulded and influenced Anurag’s relentless and resilient journey. How did his ‘life’s mantra’ gather momentum? Was were the influences and realizations – internal and external - that fuelled and accelerated it? Anurag shares….

“I realised fairly early in my career that a well-defined purpose can become the guiding force to building something great in life. I have ever since followed this in my personal and professional life, both. 

I feel that access to high quality, affordable healthcare should be a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. This stems from the fact that most of the primary healthcare in India is reactionary, fragmented, lacks continuity and is an out of pocket expense. Health insurances either don’t or partly cover primary care expenses, that too only if the patient requires hospitalization. 

Add to this the lack of basic primary healthcare infra and awareness in rural areas, thus making the situation far worse for under privileged and uneducated. 

In fact, even educated people in urban areas are unaware that several illnesses do not require hospitalisation and can be easily treated at home through regular monitoring & medication.

vHealth in India is trying to bridge this access & information gap through innovative, affordable and tech-enabled delivery of healthcare services, even in Tier 3 or below cities, through our robust network of 3500+ partner centres, comprising of diagnostic labs, hospitals & clinics and pharmacies, covering over 2000 cities.”

THE TARGET AHEAD

So what lies ahead for Anurag? Is there a burning goal that he wants to crack? A new peak that he is planning with his teams? The industry veteran divulges generously…

“As mentioned earlier, my aim is to provide easy access to quality yet affordable healthcare services to the remotest corners of the country.

I firmly believe we can achieve this is by creating a Phygital (Physical + Digital) healthcare delivery model that combines the advantages of both telemedicine and physical health centers, by providing treatment continuity across primary, secondary and tertiary care, depending on the patient’s needs. 

These services will be affordable and value based, with the ultimate objective of curing a patient through minimal hospital visits. As far as possible the patient should be treated through home care, which I believe can be more comfortable for the patient as well as pocket friendly, and combining it with cutting edge AI-enabled technology, can become as efficient as IPD care.”

*This story is published by VOH team.*