A guide on opening your own medical clinic in India.

The Indian healthcare industry stands very high in the list of world healthcare and is growing every year at a relatively high rate. With the increase in population and health awareness, the healthcare industry has got a push like never before. With this being said and huge hospitals with world class healthcare infrastructure and facilities being available in almost all the major cities, the small towns and villages still do not have the same level of infrastructure. This makes majority of Indian rural population deprived of health care facilities.

At this point the Healthcare clinics serve as important channels in providing quality health care to a large population residing in small towns and rural areas. The clinics do not require huge investments for the infrastructure or equipment, and cater to a large number of people and thus are a great small business for Doctors and Medical Practitioners.

Business Entity

It is always recommended to the startups to begin as a registered corporate entity, in order to provide limited liability protection to the promoters and reduce the risk. Also it can be easily transferred to another person in the future. Healthcare clinics are always recommended to get their business registered as a Limited Liability Partnership Firm (LLP). The structure of the business can be that one or more than one partners can be licensed Practitioner and the investors/ stakeholders can still be a part of the LLP as non-healthcare service providers.

If you have a small clinic, whose annual turnover is less than Rs.10 lakhs, you may register as a Proprietorship firm. However, if you wish to establish a large clinic or your investment exceeds Rs.25 lakhs, then it is preferred that the clinic is registered as a private limited company .

Trademark for Clinics

The contemporary health care market has witnessed numerous health care brands being established and expanded. There are a lot of clinics these days having their own unique brand names. These clinics can obtain trademark registration in order to create an intangible asset and build goodwill over time along with making sure that all the investments in branding and intellectual property are fully secure.

Service Tax Registration

Under the service tax act, not all the services are liable for taxation in the health care industry. Those services are enlisted below.

The services provided by an independent/resident doctor of any hospital are non taxable.

Tax is not levied in case of the patient being a part of the same business that is providing the health service.

Any kind of preventive care that is offered to an insured person does not come under taxable services.

Payments made for the health care services obtained are non taxable.

All the other health care services, apart from the above mentioned come under the category of taxable services/service providers. It is thus mandatory in their case to obtain service tax registration when the annual turnover crosses Rs. 9 lakhs and becomes liable .