PMJAY Fraud: Khyati Hospital misused emergency tags for Rapid Medical Approvals

This was revealed after the crime branch interrogated a few PM-JAY officers who admitted to the wrongdoing. According to crime branch sources, PM-JAY officials indicated that they did not take time to review each application thoroughly and relied solely on the "emergency" tag to expedite pre-authorisation requests so the hospital could proceed with the medical procedures without delay.

Speaking to TOI, a crime branch officer said, "The crime branch has already questioned a few PM-JAY officers suspected to be involved in sanctioning the claims filed by Khyati Hospital. The hospital wanted to avoid scrutiny from unfamiliar PM-JAY officers, so the hospital authorities offered bribes and marked their files as 'emergency' to bypass the review process. This made sure they received approvals without any delay."

Medical dialogues had earlier reported that according to the Ahmedabad crime branch, as many as 112 deaths have occurred in the past three years, either during or after treatment under government healthcare schemes. The revelation came during investigations days after the Ahmedabad crime branch arrested Dr Sanjay Patolia, a bariatric surgeon and one of the directors of city-based Khyati Multispeciality Hospital.

Between September 2021 and October 2024, nearly 8,500 patients received treatment or underwent different surgeries at the private hospital.

Meanwhile, the state health department has proposed to increase the staff from 60 to 180 personnel to handle the approval of medical reimbursement bills from hospitals. They will also demand detailed medical documents, such as angiography and angioplasty reports for heart-related procedures.

Recently, the crime branch arrested another director of the facility bringing the total number of arrests to eight.