Businessworld has a cover story on the rise of specialty hospital chains - most of them Private Equity-backed including eyecare-focused Vasan Healthcare, urology-focused RG Stone and cancer-focused HCG - and the new business models they are experimenting with. There are reasons, however, why things could just click for these protagonists. One, many of them are in specialties such as ophthalmology, day-care surgery and dialysis care involving lower capital expenditure. For instance, a cardiac hospital or a multi-specialty tertiary care hospital costs an average of Rs 60-70 lakh per bed, excluding the real estate cost, says Singh of Technopak. That works out to Rs 60-70 crore for a 100-bed hospital. Cash break-even typically takes about three years. But the set-up cost for these specialties per centre would be within of Rs 10 crore. An important factor is that in-patient stay is rarely required since a number of these are day procedures. This minimises the need for support infrastructur...