Min-Sheng Healthcare Tries to Tie Up With 8 Foreign Insurance Firms

Taipei, Jan. 28, 2008 (CENS)--In addition to two cooperation agreements signed in 2007 with two American insurers, local Min-Sheng Healthcare would keep trying to expand operations by partnering with eight foreign insurers, further building its capacity to offer medical services to more international patients, according to Fred Yang, CEO of MissionCare Inc.

MissionCare is the holding arm of the Min-Sheng Healthcare, and the former is scheduled to go public in Singapore as early as 2009.

Yang Min-sheng, chairman of Min-Sheng Healthcare claimed that his hospital group started deployment in internationalized medical services five years ago after recognizing the limited market in Taiwan due to the national health insurance program.

Under the planning and direction of Fred Yang, Yang Min-sheng's son, MissionCare sold ING Life Insurance all the real estate under Min-Sheng Hospital in 2007 but retained control of its operations. MissionCare also signed cooperation agreements with two other American insurance firms, the Global Choice and United Health International, to introduce American patients to acquire medical services in Taiwan.

Fred Yang stressed that Min-Sheng has accumulated many competitive advantages especially in cardiac catheterization, Minimally Invasive Solutions (MIS), and orthopedic surgery. He added that Min-Sheng owns world-class medical services and, for example, the cost of an orthopedic surgery is only one-third that in the United States.

Min-Sheng has been accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI). The healthcare group is setting up a marketing point in Los Angeles, which is expected to attract more patients live in Chinese communities to Taiwan with local insurance companies' consent.

According to Fred Yang, Min-Sheng is also aggressively contacting an Indonesia-based conglomerate and hopes to tie up with the partner for joint development of the mainland Chinese market.

The CEO explained that Min-Sheng's strategy is to allow MissionCare be the core party to raise international capital, which would be utilized to set up a big-scale hospital chain for entering into the global market through acquisitions.

In China, Yang added, Min-Sheng has cooperated with a medical management firm and would set up an 800-bed hospital in Nanchang of Jiangxi Province in the third quarter of 2008. All the staff training and medical management works would be handled by Min-Sheng, he said.

Yang stressed that MissionCare's goal is to be listed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore by 2015, as well as become the largest medical service chain in the Greater China region.