Palampur: Long wait for beneficiaries of flagship health scheme

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, July 3

With the state government failing to clear the dues under the HIMCARE scheme to various private nursing homes for the past eight months, most of these health facilities in the district have been keeping the beneficiaries waiting for treatment.

These nursing homes are admitting non-HIMCARE patients on priority while assigning future dates to the beneficiaries of the state government’s scheme.

A number of patients told The Tribune that most hospitals were not entertaining HIMCARE card and giving the scheme beneficiaries dates for surgeries and other treatment. In serious cases where urgent surgeries were required, the patients had been making cash payments, they said.

When contacted, an owner of a private nursing home said, “Non-reimbursement of bills for a year has made it difficult to continue the HIMCARE scheme. The nursing homes are unable to pay the salaries of staff, besides clearing medicine bills. If dues are not cleared soon, the nursing homes will be forced to stop providing services under the scheme. As such, non-HIMCARE patients are being admitted on priority.”

The government’s flagship scheme is apparently crumbling with the total liability toward the private nursing homes and Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) in the state in past nine months crossing Rs 350 crore. The HIMCARE scheme is totally funded by the state government. The RKS and private hospitals empanelled under the scheme receive funds from the state government for providing cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh per patient a year for different ailments. The government later reimburses the amount to the private hospitals for providing cashless services to the patients.

Naresh Vermani, president of the Private Nursing Home Association, has appealed to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to release the pending bills of nursing homes without delay if the government wants to continue the scheme.

WHAT IS HIMCARE SCHEME

The HIMCARE scheme is totally funded by the state government. The RKS and private hospitals empanelled under the scheme receive funds from the state government for providing cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh per patient a year for different ailments. The government later reimburses the amount to the private hospitals for providing cashless services to the patients.