October 22, 2018, 11:24 pm / Business Exclusively by subscription

Doctor Nearby will increase its network of clinics threefold

The company plans to spend about half a billion rubles Anastasia Ivanova In the coming years, the most important thing for patients will be the location of clinics, Shulyak is sure / Evgeniy Razumny / Vedomosti

Over five years, the Moscow network “Doctor Nearby” plans to open 18 new medical institutions, said CEO Alexander Pilipchuk. “Doctor Nearby” has 12 clinics, all in Moscow, nine since 2013 have been operating under a public-private partnership scheme and are required to serve 8,000 patients per year under compulsory medical insurance, then the annual rent of the premises costs 1 ruble. for 1 sq. m.

Doctor Nearby clinics bring in several million rubles of net profit per month, Pilipchuk continues, but the entire company is not yet profitable - telemedicine requires large investments. According to SPARK-Interfax for 2017, revenue was 304.9 million rubles, 1.5 times more than in 2016, the loss decreased to 88.9 million, or 7%.

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The money will flow into voluntary health insurance and paid clinics

The Doctor Nearby clinic achieved self-sufficiency due to an order of magnitude increase in the number of patients, Pilipchuk points out: in 2018 there were 400,000 of them (those registered as patients who did not necessarily come for an appointment). The share of voluntary health insurance in clinics’ revenue is 50%, the company’s goal is 65%. Compulsory medical insurance brings in 7% of revenue, the rest comes from patients without insurance, says Pilipchuk.

To achieve the goal, the company is changing its development model, he continues: “The Doctor is Nearby” will buy up clinics and clinical diagnostic centers (CDCs). In total, it was planned to buy 16 clinics and 3 CDCs. The first transactions took place: in August 2018, a CDC with an area of 1080 sq. m was purchased. m near the Viterra clinic, and in October - a clinic with an area of 300 sq. m. m at Vesta-swem (Doctor Clinic brand). The CDC cost about 100 million rubles, the clinic - tens of millions, said a person close to one of the parties to the transactions.

The company intends to pay 20–25 million rubles for clinics, and 60–100 million for the CDC, Pilipchuk promises: investments over five years will amount to about 500 million rubles.

“Doctor Nearby” does not plan to take out loans, says Pilipchuk: money either from their own, or from current investors, including Leonid Melamed and Vladimir Gurdus.

“Doctor Nearby” will accept compulsory medical insurance patients only under the public-private partnership program, Pilipchuk warned. In May 2018, Moscow changed the terms of cooperation, he recalls: it is necessary to assign 2,500 compulsory medical insurance patients to each clinic, then the rental rate will remain unchanged.

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There are lighting requirements for clinics, usually these are buildings with an office layout, says Yulia Nazarova, head of the street retail department at JLL in Moscow: such facilities are not in great demand by retail operators, the cost of renting them in residential areas ranges from 18,000 to 30,000 rubles. for 1 sq. m per year. That is, if you pay not 1 rub. for 1 sq. m, rent will cost millions of rubles a year, such a price is unaffordable for a clinic business.

The advantage of public clinics is that patients are assigned to them themselves, says Pilipchuk; private businesses need to invest in marketing in order to recruit compulsory medical insurance patients. The preferential lease agreement for Doctors Nearby is valid until April 2019, negotiations are underway on the terms of continued cooperation with the city, he reports.

Compulsory medical insurance tariffs are low, the profitability of such patients is low, but compulsory medical insurance still helps clinics generate additional cash flow, says Sergei Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group, although, of course, voluntary medical insurance is more profitable.

In the coming years, the location of clinics will be most important to patients, Shulyak is sure: the format of clinics at home will be in great demand, since speed and convenience are important to patients.