Jharkhand: Private hospitals threaten to stop treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme, Govt efforts to clear dues

Ranchi: Many Private hospitals were reluctant to provide treatment to patients admitted under the Central government's Ayushman Bharat scheme, as the dues were not paid by the government and were running into crores, forcing the hospitals into a financial crunch. This move has forced the State Government to process more than 250 claims exceeding Rs 1 lakh.

The association of private hospitals in Jharkhand issued a public notification stating that they would be unable to treat patients under the Central government's Ayushman Bharat free treatment scheme because of the non-payment of the bills by the state government.  

As per a media report in India Today, the association requested the government authorities to clear the pending dues in the public notification. 

As per a media report in the Times of India, the private hospitals in Dhanbad had already refused to provide treatment to patients under the Ayushman Bharat scheme due to the state government's non-payment of bills a day earlier. 

The beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat scheme can receive cashless treatment at private hospitals and the state government is responsible for clearing the dues. A public notification was published in newspapers on behalf of the Indian Medical Association (Jharkhand chapter) and the Hospital Board of India (HBIJ), Jharkhand on Sunday. 

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In it, the private healthcare institutes claimed that they have not received money since September 2021 and the state health department has not paid the bills. As per a media report in the Times of India, the notification states, "We have been continuously serving the beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat at our hospitals and we have always taken pride in serving the poor and underprivileged patients with the best of amenities which was made possible due to this ambitious medical care programme. However, we have been facing an acute financial crisis due to the non-payment of the dues by the state health department. Many of our members are in such a situation where they do not have resources left for arranging consumables used for treating the patients. Therefore, we might have to completely stop the services offered to patients under the scheme." 

Further, it reads, "We will continue to provide uninterrupted services to the patients if our dues are cleared with immediate effect and the payment cycle is regularized as it was earlier."

Several districts and private hospital representatives said that they have been struggling hard to operate the hospital as the dues from a single district runs into crores. They added that their financial problems began in September last year, and they have only received assurances from the government officials every time they got in touch with them for periods. 

Dr Nishant Singh of Parmeshwari Medical Centre in Garhwa said, "We haven't received a single payment since September last year. My dues alone are to the tune of Rs 30 lakh and we have been requesting the government for payment, but has fallen on deaf ears," adding, "We had decided to suspend the services last year itself but postponed it in the interest of the patients who are suffering from serious ailments, like kidney problems, visiting our centre daily for dialysis. We have officially stopped the services now and as per provisions, we have informed the authorities a day in advance."

Dr Harsh Ajmera, the director of Aarogyam Hospital in Hazaribag, told TOI, "My dues are over Rs 2 crore and across the district, it will be more than Rs 5 crores. I have also spoken to the insurance people and they are saying we will get the dues. But if you don't get a single penny for six months, how can you operate the institute. We are now forced to stop taking Ayushman patients."

Talking about how this would affect a large number of patients coming to private hospitals, Dr Shambhu Prasad, the president of the IMA, said, "The beneficiaries have been availing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in a hassle-free manner for the past three years. But private hospitals have not received their pending dues since September 2021. Around 3 lakh people from across the state avail of the Ayushman Bharat scheme and avail the cashless treatment at the hospitals due to which many of them now are in a dire financial crisis. Many hospitals in Godda, Giridih and Garhwa districts have stopped admitting patients under the Ayushman Bharat free treatment scheme." He added, "IMD Jharkhand and HBIJ will disclose their strategy on this issue on April 23."

Dr Shambu further added, "Our repeated requests to the health department officials are not yielding any results. We only get to hear that they have released such and such amounts. We have met the officials at least five times in the last two months but all that we got is false assurances."

Further, the hospital officials said that as per the MoU signed with the state government, there is a provision of paying interest on the dues, which may put an extra burden on the state exchequer, reports The New Indian Express.

According to local sources, there is a chance that the IMA would give a seven-day deadline as an ultimatum in meeting their demands, however, many hospitals in Ranchi have already stopped taking in patients, including those needing dialysis under the Ayushman Bharat free treatment scheme. 

For instance, in several districts like Dhanbad, Godda, Giridih, Ranchi, Garhwa, and Hazaribag, the private hospitals have stopped cashless treatment under the scheme and are not admitting patients to the hospitals due to the financial crunch. 

However, the Executive Director of the scheme's nodal body in the state claimed that they have released an amount of Rs Rs 170 crore to the insurance companies concerned, adding that the insurance companies have also given Rs 30 crore to the hospitals in lieu of medical treatment.

Further, state government officials said that the scheme could not be interrupted all of a sudden since it is a flagship programme of the central government, adding that the money would be released gradually and private hospitals would get their dues soon, reports TNIE.

The President of the Association of Healthcare Providers in India (AHPI), Jharkhand, Yogesh Gambhir told India Today, "Many organisations have met the state health minister Batra Gupta and have kept forward their demands. They have demanded the restoration of the payment cycle in fifteen days, no harassment by TPAs by unnecessary queries and no threats of fines or suspension by the government on flimsy grounds."

Executive director of JSAS, Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh said,"A total of over Rs 1.34 crore have been processed to the hospitals whose claims of more than Rs 1 lakh were delayed due to the technical glitch. We still have a few claims left which will be cleared in the next couple of days".reports TOI

For more than two months the dues were stuck with the Jharkhand State Arogya Society due to a technical glitch that cropped up with the payee bank and national health authority portal for validating the security certificate which was not getting accepted by the bank servers.