Our commercial model
Who pays us, who pays our partner, and why you should know before you know anything else
You pay Sevanta a fixed coordination fee. No hospital pays us anything. Our partner organisation in India is paid commission by the hospitals it works with. This page sets out what that means for you, including the parts that are not comfortable.
- Paid by you, and only by you
- Your treatment money never passes through us
- The conflicts named, in section five
01The short version
If you read nothing else here, read that paragraph twice. Then, if you are comparing us with anyone else, ask them for their equivalent. Most companies in this market are paid by hospitals and do not say so, and a patient who discovers that after a poor outcome has a real grievance.
02Where our money comes from
One source: the coordination fee you pay us. It is a fixed amount in pounds, stated in your written estimate and shown as its own line in the cost estimator on this site. It covers the screening call, gathering and securely transferring your records, the comparison document, arranging the surgeon consultation, coordinating the trip with our partner in India, keeping your family informed, and twelve months of follow-up coordination at home.
We take no commission, referral fee, marketing payment, discount or benefit in kind from any hospital, clinic, clinician, insurer, airline or hotel. Our agreements with hospitals say so in writing. Because the fee is fixed, we earn exactly the same whether you choose the least expensive option on the comparison document or the most, and exactly the same whether you go ahead or decide not to.
03What happens to each pound you pay
Four payments, in sequence, with who receives each one and what for. A commission model can hide inside a paragraph; it cannot hide inside a list.
- 01
You → Sevanta
- What for
- The coordination fee, for everything listed in section two. Invoiced by Sevanta Health Ltd, payable in pounds to a UK bank account, with a fourteen-day right to cancel from the day you sign.
- How much
- A fixed fee, stated in pounds in your written estimate before you commit
The exact figure will be published on this page and in the estimator once our terms of business are finalised. It is the same for every patient and every hospital.
- 02
You → The hospital
- What for
- Your treatment: surgeon, anaesthetist, theatre, implant, inpatient stay, medication and ward physiotherapy, as itemised in the hospital’s own written quotation.
- How much
- The hospital’s quoted price, paid on the hospital’s invoice
Paid directly by you, at the stages the hospital sets out in writing — usually a deposit on confirmation and the balance on admission. Sevanta never holds this money.
- 03
The hospital → Our partner organisation in India
- What for
- Commission, for the patients the partner brings to the hospital and the on-the-ground arrangements it makes: visa support, transfers, accommodation, admission and day-to-day support.
- How much
- A percentage of the treatment price, set by each hospital
This is the conflict. It is not paid by you as a separate line, but it is inside the hospital’s price. We ask every hospital to disclose the rate to us, and we pass it on to you in writing with your comparison document.
- 04
You → Third parties
- What for
- Flights, visa fees, travel insurance, accommodation, UK physiotherapy and any UK imaging or consultant review — each booked and paid by you, directly with the provider.
- How much
- At the provider’s price, itemised in your estimate
Sevanta receives nothing from any of these providers. We give factual information about insurance and refer you to an authorised broker; we do not sell or arrange it.
04What this means for your price
The price you pay the hospital is the hospital’s price, and it already contains whatever commission the hospital pays our partner. You are not charged that commission as an extra line, and you would not avoid it by contacting the hospital directly — international patient departments pay commission to whichever facilitator brings a patient, and quote the same price to patients who arrive on their own.
What you can hold us to is the total: the hospital’s price, our fee, and every third-party line, in one itemised estimate with the exclusions printed beside it, before you commit to anything. If the estimate is wrong in a way we could have foreseen, that is our failure and we will say so.
05The conflicts this creates
An honest disclosure names the conflicts before it describes the safeguards. Here are the three we can see. If you can see a fourth, tell us and we will add it.
06What we do about them
The comparison document is produced by Sevanta in the UK, not by the partner in India, and it uses the same headings for every hospital: accreditation and its scope, the named surgeon and their register entry, unit volumes in your operation for a stated year, infection and outcome reporting, the date we last walked the building, the itemised price, and the commission rate the hospital has disclosed. The partner sees it after you do.
The choice is recorded as yours, in writing, and we do not recommend one option over another. Where we think an option is a poor fit for your case we say so and explain why — that is a judgement about your case, not a preference among hospitals. Our fee is fixed, so we have no financial reason to steer. Our agreement with the partner requires non-exclusivity, an anti-kickback warranty, disclosure of every commission arrangement, and audit rights, and it can be terminated if any of those is breached. Our agreement with every hospital says that Sevanta takes nothing from it, and we will show you the clause.
07What we will not do
Four commitments, written so that a breach would be obvious rather than arguable.
- We will not take any payment, in money or in kind, from any hospital, clinic, clinician, insurer or travel provider. If this ever changes, this page changes first and every existing client is told.
- We will not hold your treatment money. You pay the hospital directly, on its invoice, and if anything happens to Sevanta your treatment funds are not at risk.
- We will not put a hospital on our register, or keep it there, because of the commission it pays our partner. The register is built on the six checks published on the hospitals page and nothing else.
- We will not charge you more for choosing not to travel. If you decide against it at any point before you contract with the hospital, you owe us nothing beyond the fee stages already reached, and nothing at all within the fourteen-day cancellation period.
08How to check any of this
Ask us for the clause in our hospital agreement that says Sevanta receives nothing from the hospital, and for the disclosure of the commission rate for each hospital on your comparison document. Ask the hospital’s international patient department the same question directly; they will answer it. Ask to see our terms of business, our professional indemnity certificate, and our agreement with the partner organisation with the commercial figures redacted.
And ask any other company you are comparing us with the same questions. The ones that answer them in writing are the ones worth talking to.
Questions about how we are paid? The 5 we are asked most, answered — and searchable — on one page.
Search the FAQsNow that you know how we are paid
The estimator shows our fee as its own line, next to the hospital’s price and everything else, without asking for your email. The Privacy & Safety page sets out which protections travel with you and who pays if plans change. Read both before you talk to us.