Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, June 12
Thousands of beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojana are being denied treatment across the state for over a month now. Reason: The private hospitals, which are empanelled under the yojana, have already stopped admitting new patients over the issue of the non-payment of their medical claims by the insurance companies.
DUES TO BE CLEARED IN TWO WEEKS
We will be clearing the dues of private hospitals in coming two weeks. We are hopeful that the health insurance scheme will be fully operational in the private hospitals soon. Ajoy Sharma, Principal Secretary, Health amp; Family welfare dept
Patients — due to the issues between two stakeholders — have been left in the lurch. The matter, it seems, is not important to the government as it is continuously turning a blind eye towards it.
A beneficiary of the yojana, Paramjit Singh, suffering from a kidney ailment, said a private hospital in Rajpura denied him dialysis under the Ayushman scheme. He is pleading with the government to immediately intervene because he can’t afford to pay Rs 2,500 per dialysis, that too, twice a week. In Patiala alone, around 150 kidney patients have to undergo dialysis every day.
Besides this, the neonatal care of newborns is also worst hit by the abrupt closure of the scheme by private hospitals.
Sources in the Health Department have revealed that the infant mortality rate had also gone up due to the lack of availability of the neonatal care in the government set-up while private hospitals had shut their doors.
A senior official of the Health Department, preferring anonymity, said, “Poor beneficiaries can’t afford treatment in private hospitals without the Ayushman scheme. In the government set-up, the neonatal intensive care units are rare. The government should intervene and stop patients from dying.”
Meanwhile, private hospitals claimed they were compelled to suspend the scheme due to the non-payment of their long-pending dues.
Month on, private hospitals refuse to admit Ayushman beneficiaries
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