How to Start a Mobile IV Therapy Business in Indonesia

In Indonesia, IV administration is classified as a medical procedure. If you’re looking to start a mobile IV therapy business, that means the service must be anchored to a licensed clinic. You can’t operate as a standalone tech or logistics company.

Since foreign investors can’t hold a clinic license directly in most cases, the standard approach is a KSO (Kerja Sama Operasi) arrangement. In this arrangement, your PT PMA handles the commercial side while a licensed Indonesian clinic covers the medical responsibility.

In this article, we will cover how you can start a Mobile IV Therapy business in Indonesia using the KSO approach as a foreign investor. 

How IV Therapy Is Classified Under Indonesian Law

Under Indonesian law, IV therapy is classified as a medical procedure. More specifically, home-service IV treatment falls under Advanced Healthcare Services (Pelayanan Kesehatan Tingkat Lanjutan) pursuant to Article 37 of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health.

This classification affects how your business must be structured:

• IV therapy cannot be delivered by non-licensed personnel under any circumstances
• The service must be performed by licensed medical personnel registered under a licensed clinic
• The clinic and its Chief Physician (Dokter Penanggung Jawab) retain full legal responsibility for all medical procedures delivered under their license

This is why mobile IV therapy businesses in Indonesia cannot operate as standalone technology or logistics companies. The clinical side of the business must always be anchored to a licensed healthcare facility. The most practical way for a foreign investor to achieve this is through a KSO (Kerja Sama Operasi) arrangement with a licensed Indonesian clinic.

What Is the KSO Model?

KSO stands for Kerja Sama Operasi, which translates directly to “Joint Operation” or “Operational Cooperation.” It is a contractual business arrangement between two or more parties who agree to share rights, obligations, and responsibilities under a written agreement. 

A KSO is not a separate legal entity but rather, each party retains its own legal identity. A foreign-owned company (PT PMA) partners with a licensed Indonesian clinic either Klinik Pratama or Klinik Utama. Here’s the difference between the two: 

In a KSO model, either type of clinic handles the medical side while you (as the PT PMA) handles the commercial side of the business. The clinic provides the healthcare license and ensures all medical services comply with Indonesian health law. 

On the other hand, the PT PMA provides the operational infrastructure. This includes the technology platform, branding, logistics, and business management. Revenue is shared between both parties according to the terms of the KSO agreement.

This structure works for three practical reasons:

• It sidesteps the Klinik Utama proximity requirement. Because you are operating under an existing clinic’s license rather than establishing a new clinic, you do not need to cite your operations next to a Class A or B hospital.
• It allows faster market entry. Establishing a fully foreign-owned Klinik Utama involves substantial capital requirements and a lengthy licensing process. A KSO can be structured and operational in a fraction of the time.
• It reduces regulatory complexity. The Indonesian partner holds the license and manages clinical compliance, while the PT PMA focuses on operations, growth, and commercial performance.

How to Setup a KSO Structure for a Mobile IV Therapy Business

Step 1: Establish a PT PMA (Foreign-Owned Company)

The first step is establishing your legal business entity in Indonesia. For foreign investors, this means setting up a PT PMA (Perseroan Terbatas Penanaman Modal Asing). Here’s what you need:

• Minimum paid-up capital of IDR 2.5 billion (~USD 150,000), as per BKPM Regulation No. 5 of 2025
• At least two shareholders, either individuals or corporations
• At least one resident director either an Indonesian citizen, or a foreigner holding a valid work and stay permit (KITAS)
• A registered business address in Indonesia
• The correct KBLI business classification code. For all Human healthcare-related services, this falls under Subgroup 86. Your KBLI must align with the commercial activities your PT PMA will perform under the KSO

The PT PMA is registered through the government’s Online Single Submission (OSS) system. Once registered, you receive a Business Identification Number (NIB), which serves as your primary business license.

Read our guide on how to start a PT PMA in Indonesia. 

Step 2: Identify a Licensed Indonesian Clinic Partner

Your Indonesian partner must hold a valid clinic operating license (Izin Operasional) issued by the Ministry of Health or the relevant regional health authority. You can partner with either a Klinik Pratama or a Klinik Utama under the KSO structure. 

While a foreign investor cannot directly own a Klinik Pratama, nothing prevents a PT PMA from entering a KSO agreement with one. The clinic’s medical license covers the clinical services; your PT PMA covers everything else.

When evaluating a potential private clinic as a partner under KBLI 86105, you need to look for the following:

• Standard Certificate to be verified and issued via OSS after document submission and local health authority inspection.
• Medical waste management (B3) MoU.
• Monitoring & Assessment Environment permit (UKL/UPL)
• Surat Izin Praktik (SIP): A personal practice license is issued to each healthcare worker (if required)
• A clean compliance track record. This means no prior sanctions, license suspensions, or Ministry of Health violations
• Operational readiness to support mobile service delivery, or genuine willingness to build that capacity with you

The quality of your clinic partner directly determines the legal integrity of your entire operation.

Step 3: Understand How Nurse Delegation Works

One of the most practically important aspects of mobile IV therapy in Indonesia is understanding who can actually administer the IV drip at a client’s home or hotel room and under what conditions.

Keep in mind that doctors do not need to be physically present at every IV therapy session. Under Article 290 of Law No. 17 of 2023, medical professionals and healthcare workers may be delegated the authority to provide healthcare services. This means a doctor can delegate IV administration to a qualified nurse including treatments involving anti-nausea medication, as long as specific conditions are met:

• Formal delegation protocols (Standard Operating Procedures / SOPs) must be documented and in place
• The nurse must hold a valid STR (professional registration) and SIP (practice permit)
• The nurse must comply with professional and service standards applicable to their practice
• The delegation must be properly documented and clinically compliant

In practice, this means your mobile IV therapy sessions can be nurse-led, which is essential for scaling operations. A doctor on your partner clinic’s roster can oversee multiple simultaneous sessions through properly documented SOPs, without being physically present at each one.

This is how most mobile IV therapy businesses operate at scale, provided the documentation and delegation framework is correctly established.

Step 4: Clarify the Employment Structure

It is legally possible for nurses to be employed by the PT PMA, with their SIP (practice license) registered under the partner clinic. Indonesian law (specifically, Law No. 17 of 2023) does not require a clinic to act as the employer of nurses practicing at that clinic. The law only requires that medical and health personnel hold a valid SIP registered at their place of practice.

This distinction matters significantly for how you run your business:

• If nurses are employed by the PT PMA, the PT PMA manages payroll, HR, and operational deployment directly
• The clinic partner remains responsible for credentialing, clinical oversight, and the SIP registration of each nurse practicing under its license
• This structure keeps the PT PMA in full operational control of its workforce while maintaining clinical accountability with the licensed clinic

Both parties should reflect this arrangement clearly in the KSO agreement to avoid any ambiguity about who is responsible for what.

Step 5: Draft the KSO Agreement (Critical)

The KSO agreement is the legal backbone of your entire business.Your KSO agreement must include these specific clauses to protect the PT PMA’s position:

• IP ownership and brand protection: Your brand, service concepts, formulations, protocols, and any technology you develop belong to the PT PMA. This must be explicitly stated. Do not leave any ambiguity about who owns the brand if the KSO agreement is terminated.
• Customer data ownership and usage rights: All patient and customer data collected through your platform belongs to the PT PMA. The clinic partner may access clinical records as required by Indonesian health law, but commercial data (booking history, preferences, contact details) must remain with the PT PMA.
• Confidentiality and data protection clauses: Both parties must be bound by confidentiality obligations covering business information, patient data, financial terms, and proprietary systems.
• Non-solicitation clauses: Prevent the clinic partner from directly engaging your customers or poaching your operational team after the KSO relationship ends.
• Clear scope of roles and responsibilities: Define precisely what falls within the clinic’s domain (clinical services, medical responsibility, SIP registration) and what falls within the PT PMA’s domain (branding, technology, customer acquisition, logistics, revenue management). This separation is the structural foundation of your liability protection.
• Penalty and breach clauses: Define what constitutes a breach by either party and what the financial consequences are. Vague agreements lead to costly disputes.
• Exit and termination clause: Specify the conditions under which either party can exit, the required notice period, and what happens to ongoing customer relationships, staff arrangements, and data when the agreement ends.

The agreement must also clearly separate medical liability (which rests with the clinic and its Chief Physician) from commercial operations liability (which rests with the PT PMA). 

Emerhub can help you craft a KSO agreement when you start your business with us. 

Step 6: Obtain Operational Approvals and Registrations

Beyond the KSO agreement itself, your operation will require several additional approvals:

• Medical device registration: IV equipment including infusion pumps, IV catheters, IV bags, must be registered with the Ministry of Health’s Department of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices. As of July 1, 2024, holding an official CDAKB (Good Distribution Practice) certificate is a prerequisite for distributors registering new medical products.
• Pharmaceutical supply compliance: IV solutions containing vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, or medications must be sourced from BPOM-registered suppliers in Indonesia. Administering unregistered pharmaceutical products is not legally permissible, regardless of where they were produced.
• Medical waste disposal: All sharps and clinical waste from IV sessions must be disposed of through a licensed medical waste management provider. This is a standard compliance requirement for all healthcare operations in Indonesia.
• SatuSehat integration: Indonesia’s national electronic health records platform, SatuSehat, is now connected to 98.6% of healthcare providers. Your clinic partner must ensure patient records from mobile sessions are integrated into this system as required by the Ministry of Health.

Alternative Structure: Technical Assistance Agreement

If a KSO with a specific clinic type proves too restrictive for your operational model, you can establish a Technical Assistance Agreement (Perjanjian Bantuan Teknis) rather than a formal KSO. Under this arrangement, the PT PMA provides technical services, systems, and operational support to the clinic in exchange for a fee or revenue share.

TAAs require approval from BKPM and are common for technology transfer, but they do not grant ownership or profit-sharing beyond fees for services. TAAs suit licensing expertise from abroad, while KSOs enable partnering with local firms for operations to bypass full PT PMA setup costs. 

To help you set up a mobile IV therapy business in Indonesia, we can help you set up a PT PMA under a KSO or TAA.  Our team in Jakarta can guide you through each step of the process.

Consult with our local experts to know whether you need a KSO or a TAA structure. You can fill out the form for a free consultation.