Amritsar: Private hospitals refuse to admit new AB-SSBY patients

Manmeet Singh Gill

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Amritsar, May 9

The beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat-Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, (AB-SSBY), a flagship health insurance programme of the government to ensure medical care for the poor, is expected to hit hard as the empanelled private hospitals have stopped taking in new patients under the scheme.

Approximately, reimbursements worth Rs 250 crore of nearly 700 empanelled private hospitals in the state are pending. The decision was taken at the state level to not take in new patients till the dues are cleared. Dr RS Sethi, president, Indian Medical Association, Amritsar Chapter

A sort of protest, the move is aimed at forcing the state government to clear the dues of private hospitals.

The representatives of private hospitals said their dues for the treatment they had provided to the beneficiaries of the scheme have not been paid for the last many months. The representatives of the hospitals said nearly Rs 10 crore of the hospitals in the city had not been paid. The hospital operators said they had made the expenses on the treatment of patients from their own funds, but now they have not received the reimbursements.

Dr RS Sethi, president, Indian Medical Association, Amritsar Chapter, said: “Approximately, the reimbursements of Rs 250 crore of the nearly 700 empanelled private hospitals in the state are pending.” He said the decision was taken at the state level to not take in new patients till the dues were cleared.

With nearly 100 empanelled private hospitals in the district, a sizable number of patients received medical care from them under the scheme. While in most cases, patients have to be referred to private hospitals by the government hospitals, in some cases patients are eligible to go to private hospitals directly.

The AB-SSBY has been going through a rough patch for the past many months, as private hospitals had stopped taking in new patients in October last year as well. In the subsequent months, too, the problem continued as the government tried to work out a solution.