Citing pending dues, Haryana private hospitals stop inpatient admissions under Ayushman Bharat
The protest call was given by the Indian Medical Association, which says only Rs 90 crore of the Rs 200-crore dues have been paid by the Haryana government.
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There are approximately 3,000-4,000 admissions daily under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in over 600 private hospitals across Haryana,” Dr Mahajan said. (Representational Photo)Private hospitals in Haryana, on a call by the Indian Medical Association, stopped inpatient admissions under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana on Monday as part of a protest against the state government for not clearing their dues, totalling over Rs 200 crore, under the national public health insurance scheme. The state government, however, said payments were held up due to software glitches and assured to clear the dues by July 15.
Dr Ajay Mahajan, president, IMA, Haryana, told The Indian Express that the protest would continue till the government cleared the dues. “We have given time till July 5. Till then we shall not admit any fresh cases,” he said.
“There are multiple issues, and pending payments is just one of them. We had been holding discussions with the state government on these issues for several weeks. In March also, we had stopped fresh admissions for three-four days under this Yojana as a mark of our protest. Although the government agreed to all our demands, it has not transferred the pending payments to the private hospitals as of today,” Dr Mahajan said.
He further said the total dues amounted to over Rs 200 crore. “The government clears these dues in bits and parts. So far they have paid approximately Rs 90 crore. But even if the government makes a payment by the end of a month, more dues accumulate by then. Approximately Rs 80-100 crore get accumulated every month. There are approximately 3,000-4,000 admissions daily under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in over 600 private hospitals across Haryana,” he added.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sudhir Rajpal too said that they have been holding regular meetings with the IMA on the issues being raised by them.
“There were about 50,000 cases where the payments were held up due to some software glitches. We assured them that the payment shall be made in bulk. Today, we released Rs 21 crore into the bank accounts of the doctors. We have deployed additional staff to expeditiously process about 1.2 lakh pending claims and we have also set a deadline of July 15 for this. In our meetings we have also assured them that in case of any delayed payments, we shall pay them with interest and we stand committed to that,” Rajpal told The Indian Express.
The senior officer said district nodal committees have been constituted and include representatives of the IMA to settle their other grievances. “The government is pro-active and resolving all the issues amicably. I have sought the data and found that the pre-authorisations are 60 per cent of the average of last few days. I also found that the IMA units in eight districts are not supporting this protest. I appeal to the IMA to lift their protest,” said Rajpal.
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