Speaking to The Financial Express, Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals said the company entered into the preliminary agreement with the Singapore-based global healthcare major a couple of days back. Officials from both groups met in Singapore recently and signed the deal. He said both groups are doing a due diligence exercise by examining each others' facilities in India and abroad. The JV is expected to get a final shape in a couple of days' time. The modalities of the JV are being worked out by the two sides, he added.

The JV, according to Dr Reddy, would help Apollo spread its wings to other regions, including the Afro-Asian nations. Apollo currently runs healthcare facilities in a slew of south Asian and west Asian countries, including Sri Lanka. The company is also considering several other proposals from some other west Asian nations like Jordan for possible tie-ups, Mr Reddy said."We have received communications from interested parties in some west Asian countries. We are examining the proposals and will take a decision on them soon", Dr Reddy said.

Mr Reddy said that as part of its new initiatives, Apollo has sought approval from the insurance regulator for entering the business of administering family health policies and third-party risk for corporate houses and other entities. He said the company would act as an intermediary among the policy-holders, hospitals and the insurance companies, to make the cumbersome insurance claim process easy.

Dr Reddy said, once the IRDA approval comes through, Apollo would help the insurance policy holders to get the best medical facility available, get the hospitals to accept the policy holder and get the hospitals money from the insurance companies in time by filing the necessary documents. "Our job will be comprehensive coordination among the parties concerned. We are expected to get the IRDA clearance soon", Dr Reddy said. He said with a network of over 980 hospitals and over 4,500 doctors, the company is hopeful of raking in good moolah out of this business.

He said the company has decided to make use of the power of information technology to spruce up its revenue stream. Apollo has floated three separate entities in the IT business stream. The new IT-enabled services from Apollo stable include Apollolife, a complete portal on healthcare; Medivarsity and Telemedicine. While Medivarsity has been launched in association with NIIT, the global electrical major GE is the technology partner in the Telemedicine venture.