Pvt hospitals freeze free services to BPL patients, ask govt to clear dues

Bengaluru: Although Karnataka health minister KR Ramesh Kumar on Monday assured private hospitals that dues worth Rs 150 crore – reimbursement for treatment to below poverty line (BPL) patients under the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) scheme – would be cleared in a fortnight, private healthcare institutions withdrew free treatment to BPL patients from Monday.
However, the Federation of Healthcare Association (FHA) and the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) believe that these assurances are seldom honoured.“We have decided not to provide free treatment to patients under the SAST scheme till the government clears its dues. We will make exceptions for children and accident victims though,” a FHA member said.
The health department has not paid dues to the private hospitals for the past six months.
Private hospitals argue that not only has the government not reimbursed them for the treatment that has been offered to BPL card holders, the amount earmarked for the three schemes that come under the ambit of SAST, is woefully inadequate. “The amount of money being reimbursed to the private hospitals that offer free – transactions are cashless – treatment under the Vajpayee Arogya Shree scheme, Sanjeevani scheme, etc, is less than 50% of the cost we incur. The funds allocated by the government cover only 30-50% of the cost,” said Dr VC Shanmugandan, secretary of FHA.
Admitting that hospitals, on social grounds, could not refuse treatment, Shanmuganadan said, “But it’s impossible for private hospitals to continue to provide free treatment if the government is unwilling to increase funding for these schemes. We have requested the government to revise the amount so that providing free treatment doesn’t turn into an unviable option for us. Until then, we won’t provide free treatment.”
We’ll discuss revision of funding shortly
We have assured the private hospitals that dues worth Rs 65 crore will be cleared within 15 days. We are looking into their demands on revision of the payment package. We will soon call a meeting of experts from the private sector, and from the government, to decide on funding for the health schemes. This will be done within two weeks. We will also look into reports of misuse of BPL cards by patients, and act accordingly.
- KR Ramesh Kumar | Karnataka minister for health and family welfare