India’s physical rehab market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.5 per cent in the next 5 years to reach $35 billion by FY2028. Physical rehab in India is now a large $17 billion market, comprising restorative care, geriatric care and pain relief, according to a Redseer report. Here are 4 charts that tell the story.

Profit from reset

Rehab is a set of interventions designed to optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions in interaction with their environment. In India, restorative care (USD 5 billion market) covers recovery from critical health conditions, mostly after a complex surgery or procedure. Geriatric care (~USD 5 billion market) refers to medical care to optimize functioning in elderly people, covering both services and products. Pain relief (~USD 4 billion market) is physiotherapy-led care in non-critical conditions such as arthritis, injuries and lifestyle related pains.

Decoding the opportunity

The Redseer report notes that in addition to being a large opportunity, physical rehab has an attractive business potential. This is indicated by the healthy gross margins of rehab providers and impressive consumer lifetime value across the major segments.

For example, in case of restorative rehab (which is ~28% of the market), a consumer typically uses it once in a lifetime, but spends USD 650-700 (~INR 50k) for a rehab treatment lasting 12 days. Further, the restorative rehab provider makes 50-55% gross margins of this spend by consumers.

Current status

The report states that majority of rehab is currently provided by hospitals and local unorganized players – hospitals dominate the critical restorative rehab segment and local providers lead the non-critical geriatric & pain-relief segments. However, both of them aren’t able to aptly serve the consumer needs.

Despite providing a standard service, consumers find rehab at hospitals to be expensive and lacking a recovery-focused environment. And, while local players are more affordable, they lack the basic quality & professionalism in service and have limited ability to address complex situations. This has created a strong need for specialized players in the rehab market, who solve these problems, enabled by a clear focus on creating high quality outcomes for consumers.

Thus, consumers’ latent needs related to the ease of availing rehab (e.g. booking, customization, care plan management, remote monitoring etc.) have also become relevant in the recent times. Specialized players possess the ability to address these needs via use of technology, which provides them with a further edge above the traditional hospitals & local rehab providers, added the report.