PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, April 22: Recipients and the empanelled private hospitals under the Center’s Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) sighed in relief as the health department has broken the payment deadlock and started clearing the outstanding dues.
Executive director of AB-PMJAY Ayushman Bharat in state Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh said that dues of a total of Rs 170 crores to the hospitals in the state have been released by the health department, out of which payment of Rs. 50 crores has been already made.
On the question of which hospitals in the state have received the payment, he said that as per the claims submitted by the hospitals, the payment is being done. “The claims which have been received first are being cleared and in coming days all the outstanding dues will be cleared.”
Yogesh Gambhir, the president of the Private Hospital Association in Jharkhand, said, “The private hospitals have started getting their dues cleared. Working in accordance with the promise done by the insurance companies, they have started making the payments which is a huge relief for the private hospitals,”
On the question of whether the facilities of Ayushman Bharat are being provided in the private hospitals or not, he said, “We have continued taking the patients coming under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme and none of the patients has been denied admission or treatment coming under the scheme.”
Hospital in-charge of Rani Hospital Rajiv Kumar Rana said that out of the dues of Rs 2 crores, the hospital has received Rs 18 lakh today. “I hope that the rest amount gets disbursed soon,”
On the question of whether the facilities of Ayushman Bharat are being provided in the hospital or not, he said, “The decision to stop the facilities has not been taken till now, so we have continued treatment under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. There is a meeting tomorrow of all the private hospitals in which some decisions will be taken.”
Since the scheme’s launch, over 9 lakh patients have availed of medical treatment across empanelled hospitals. Approximately, nearly 208 empanelled hospitals statewide have outstanding dues running into over Rs 200 crore over the past five months from insurance companies. Company representatives claimed that they could not pay up as the state government did not disburse its payable premium since September last year.
Ranchi’s premier super-speciality and their private hospitals have dues to the tune of Rs 50 crore alone. Irma-based Medanta Hospital has dues of around Rs 4 crore while Medica and Rani Hospitals have dues of Rs 2 crore each. Ranchi Sadar Hospital and RIMS Ranchi collectively have dues to the tune of Rs 2 crore.
