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The Andhra Pradesh Government’s popular healthcare scheme Aarogyasri under which people below the poverty line are provided free diagnosis and treatment in private and government hospitals, has run into rough weather.
The empanelled private hospitals today slapped a notice on the State Government, threatening to discontinue treatment of patients under this scheme from May 3 if the existing rates were not revised.
The hospitals are seeking at least 30 per cent increase in the existing annual budget of Rs 1,000 crore provided by the State Government to the hospitals for the scheme.
The AP Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (APNA) and AP Speciality Hospitals Association (ASHA) claim that the existing rates only covered 50 per cent of the actual expenditure incurred by the hospitals for treatment of Aarogyasri patients.
Dr B. Bhaskar Rao, CEO of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences and president of ASHA, said it was unfortunate that the State Government had not revised the rates for the last several years, although costs have spiralled.
The associations say that this month the hospitals will be taking in few patients and existing patients would get discharged by May 3, after which execution of the scheme would be totally stopped if the price revision was not accepted by then. They are also demanding annual revision of the rates and new guidelines.
“As per the existing MoU, the State Government reimburses a fixed amount on operations, not taking into account the diagnosis, pre-operation and out patient costs,” Dr Rao said.
Reimbursement
He pointed out that patients coming to the empanelled hospitals were also demanding reimbursement of cash towards pre-operation investigations carried out by the hospitals. “Another point is that progression of the disease cannot be part of the package — it has to be separately reimbursed, which is not being done,” he said.
The hospitals have on offer 10,000 beds for the scheme across the State, conducting about two lakh operations every year.
In fact, the scheme was a major poll plank for the Congress (I) Government in the State in the last elections.
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