Building a healthy nation

CEBU, Philippines - After 25 years, MEDICard Philippines has practically become a byword among health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the country. Their success may be anchored on the fact that MEDICard has not only been working to build its company, but more importantly, they have been striving to build a relationship with their members.

“We try to build a relationship with our members such that it is not just a one-year contract,” says Luis Montoya, SVP for special projects. “We’d like to help them manage the lives of their employees and their families. Health is obviously one of the main considerations for a company to prosper, so we’d like to be part of managing their growth as well,” he says, adding that as their members grow, they make sure the company grows as well to help meet their needs.

His brother, VP for sales and marketing Jon Montoya, adds, “Building a relationship with our clients makes them feel better about their investment. They expect a lot from their benefits.”

But it is their father, MEDICard founder Nicanor Montoya – known as Doc Mon – who puts it in the most simple terms: “We’re a service company, so we try to give the best service.”

STAR photos by FERNAN NEBRES

When Doc Mon was practicing neurology and industrial medicine and examining applicants for overseas employment, he noticed “every time a family member gets sick, the employee would ask for a loan, which they would pay through salary deduction, with me as the guarantor at the hospital.”

Doc Mon recalls that this would happen in all of the companies he handled, so he thought of coming up with a plan where employees would not be burdened by the expenses incurred from hospitalization.

After having a feasibility study done in 1986, Doc Mon pooled together a group of doctors and MEDICard started operations in July 1987. “Our first client was Manila Hotel,” he shares.

The Montoya sons, though coming from different professional backgrounds, eventually joined the company. Luis, who takes care of the management aspect of the company, joined in 1993; Nicky, a doctor, started in 1999; and Jon, a lawyer, began working for the company in 2007.

MEDICard’s founder Nicanor Montoya and his sons Luis, Nicky and Jon (top). Volunteers join Medicaravan, an outreach program that the company conducts monthly (above). On the cover: The Montoyas at the new MEDICard wellness center in Makati City.

“I was working at a law firm then,” says Jon. “I joined the company full time in 2010. My dad had a health problem in 2010 so he needed to step back and he basically needed all of us working full time together.”

For Luis, that was an easy decision to make. “I had the option of joining the business of my dad where I could make a bigger contribution, not just being a small part of the staff of a company,” he explains.

The brothers say that working together is not a problem, as each has complimentary skills to contribute to the company. Nicky, MEDICard’s current president, adds, “We try to give our own point of view and come to a consensus.”

Building the company for the past 25 years has not been easy. “We had to accredit doctors and hospitals,” says Doc Mon. “At the beginning we had a hard time convincing both the employers and the hospitals.”

At that time, the concept of HMOs was new and it was harder to ask clients to invest. Now, however, the brothers point out that medical benefits are what companies use to attract employees.

Nicky adds that the company now faces different challenges. From the perspective of a doctor, he says, many hope that they can negotiate better professional fee rates, something that MEDICard also takes into consideration since many of their stockholders are doctors themselves.

The brothers also hope that, since HMOs try to fill the gap in healthcare that the government cannot provide, they can be granted tax incentives and VAT exemption. This way, they will be able to provide more affordable healthcare.

Through the years, MEDICard has grown from 15 employees to 800. “I had the false hope before that we would break even at 500 members,” says Doc Mon. Now the company has almost 500,000 members.

MEDICard faces their next 25 years with a new goal: “Building a healthy nation.”

A major step in that direction is MEDICard’s new lifestyle center. “This represents the new thrust of MEDICard,” says Jon.

Patients of all ages wait to receive medical help at a Medicaravan held in Manila.

He continues: “If the client’s utilization (of our services) is low, we don’t have to raise the premium. Usually, we do this by limiting the benefits. But companies now are looking for more benefits for the same value.”

MEDICard’s solution to this is to provide their members with a lifestyle center. “The best way is to prevent them from getting sick in the first place. So it’s really promoting a healthier lifestyle,” he says.

Nicky adds that the lifestyle center – located at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Gil Puyat Ave. in Makati – is made up of clinics, a dermatology center, dental clinics, a studio for yoga and dance fitness classes, a physical rehabilitation gym, and even a zen garden and café that serves healthy food.

The brothers notice that many of their clients suffer lifestyle-related sicknesses. “Hypertension and diabetes are in the top five,” says Nicky. Jon adds that those in the BPO industry, for example, may be young, but their work and lifestyle are highly conducive to hypertension and diabetes.

With the lifestyle center, MEDICard hopes to improve their clients’ wellbeing and help them lead a healthier lifestyle.

The company is also reaching out to underprivileged communities through their Medicaravan. The MEDICard Foundation, the CSR arm of the company, was founded early this year. “The company has been growing very well, so the best thing we can do is to try to touch as many lives as we can,” says Luis.

Maybe we can have our own hospital one day,” says Doc Mon of his own hopes for the future. Moving forward, the Montoya brothers continue to work on building a wider network to give their members access to more hospitals. Nicky also reveals that MEDICard has been investing in technology to enhance their service. One of the projects they have been working on is providing their members with easily-accessible electronic medical records.

“That’s really the role of an HMO, giving access to more people to healthcare,” says Nicky. “We are building a partnership in healthcare and we want to continue to empower our members.”