Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Feb 15: Private Hospitals Association on Saturday demanded that the government must take them on board before taking any decision regarding Ayushman Bharat Scheme, a health insurance programme that provides free or low-cost care to eligible families.
Members of the private hospital association while addressing a news conference here, said that the reservation of four surgical procedures for public hospitals, a 10% reduction in UT-specific incentives, and the implementation of HBP 2.2 instead of HBP 2022 are not in their interests.
“These measures are anti-private sector and will push many hospitals to the verge of bankruptcy, given that we have already been suffering for the past ten months,” they said.
They said that the government owes them over Rs 100 crore and despite that they have always cooperated and are ready to cooperate in future also.
They said that the pre-bid offer of the government to the insurance company must be delayed and the government must take the private hospitals association on board as they are the important stakeholders in the scheme. “The government’s plan to exclude key surgeries such as gall bladder, hemorrhoids, appendectomies and fissure from the scheme and restrict them to government hospitals is a concern as these surgeries constitute around 50-60% of total surgical cases.”
They added that excluding these procedures would not only defeat the purpose of providing free healthcare but also increase patient suffering, as government hospitals already have long waiting lists.
They warned that financially stable patients may opt for private hospitals and pay for their treatment, while economically weaker patients would be forced to wait for months for their turn at public hospitals and they may have to sell their assets to avail treatment.
They cautioned that staff layoffs would become inevitable as private hospitals are likely to experience a 50-60% drop in surgical procedures, worsening the unemployment crisis in the region.
The association urged the authorities to implement the reforms to ensure the sustainability of the SEHAT scheme. “These reforms include implementation of HBP 2022 (approved by the National Health Authority in 2022), special rate revision for dialysis patients to reflect rising operational costs, no reservation of surgical procedures for government hospitals so that patients retain the right to choose between public and private healthcare under PMJAY, adherence to National Health Authority guidelines to ensure fair reimbursement practices,” they said.
Meanwhile an official said that these demands are already being looked into and private hospitals will be taken on board before taking any such decision.
