Kangra private hospitals up in arms over dues

Lalit Mohan

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Dharamsala, January 12

Private hospitals in Kangra district have threatened to discontinue their services for patients covered under the Himcare and Ayush health schemes from February 1. This is likely to impact thousands of patients in the state, who are undergoing treatment under these schemes.

‘Payments to be cleared soon’

The file for clearing the dues of private hospitals under two health schemes is with the Finance Department. The dues will be cleared soon. M Sudha Devi, health secy

The Kangra District Private Hospitals Doctors’ Association, in a letter to the Principal Secretary, Health, stated that they had requested the state government several times to clear their pending dues. “If the government fails to clear their previous due, the private hospitals will be forced to stop services to patients covered under the Himcare and Ayush health schemes from February 1,” it said.

Sources said that the private hospitals had not been paid their dues for treating patients under the health schemes for the past eight months.

Dr Naresh Varmani, president of the Kangra District Private Hospitals Doctors’ Association, said that the private hospitals would stop treating patients under the Himcare and Ayush schemes in the entire state if their dues were not cleared before February 1.

He said that the private hospitals were treating patients at government rates under the two schemes. “For private hospitals treating patients at government rates is not a profitable business. The dues of the private hospitals have been not been cleared for the past eight months. The pending bills of the private hospitals under the Himcare and Ayush schemes have swollen to about Rs 200 crore. In such a scenario, it has become unviable for the private hospitals to continue providing services under the two health schemes,” he added.

There are about 100 empanelled private hospitals in the state that provide free treatment to patients up to Rs 5 lakh under the two schemes. Private doctors said that whenever they took up the issue of pending bills with the Health Department, the officials concerned threatened to cancel the empanelment of their hospitals for the treatment of government employees under the medical reimbursement scheme.

Besides, government hospitals such as Tanda medical college in Kangra were also waiting for the payment of their dues under the two schemes.

While the Union Government had launched the Ayush scheme, the previous BJP government led by Jai Ram Thakur had started the Himcare scheme in the state.

Meanwhile, the BJP flayed the Congress government for allegedly ignoring the interests of people by not clearing the dues of the private hospitals.

Secretary, Health, M Sudha Devi said that the file for clearing the dues of the private hospitals under the two health schemes was under process in the Finance Department. The dues would be cleared soon, she added.