Hyderabad: Hospitals say no to Aarogyasri patients

Hyderabad: Private hospitals on Friday totally shut down Aarogyasri free medical services for the poor and the state government employee health scheme because the government has not reimbursed them since December last.

A total of 83.19 lakh families are enrolled under the schemes.

In all, 226 hospitals had partially suspended services for the last 10 days to press their demand that the government pay the arrears. When the government did not respond, they they put up banners on Friday saying they had withdrawn all services to Aarogyasri card holders. Hundreds of patients were forced to return without treatment.

The worst affected were patients needing dialysis, who were forced to shell out money despite having a card allowing them free services. Those who could not afford to pay moved to government hospitals. This led to a huge queues at state-run institutions including at the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences.

A board put up at a city hospital explained the situation: “In 2007, Aarogyasri services began in order to render corporate-level health care services to white card holders. Since May 2018, the government has not been paying the dues. Despite a huge pending amount, the hospitals continued to provide treatment. In view of the increasing expenditure like staff salaries, power and food bills, hospitals are in no shape to bear the burden. Appeals made to the government have turned futile due to which we are stopping services under Aarogyasri”.

Reacting to the shutdown, health minister Etala Rajendar said, “The government has to pay Rs 450 crore to private hospital. If the dues to government hospitals are taken into account, the total dues stand at Rs 600 crore. Against this, the hospitals are claiming Rs 1,500 crore.”

He said one of the demands of the hospitals was to revise tariff for various streams of treatment according to the current prices. “This can only be considered after a discussion with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The government has not stopped the services.”

Asked why the government did not make the payments all these months, and even after the hospitals began a partial withdrawal of services, Mr Rajendar said: “The government could not make payments because of the model code of conduct. It is not correct to discontinue services in view of public health. We are treating this strike as a temporary one.”

The TS Aarogyasri Network Hospital Association stood its ground and said that the shutdown would continue till their demands were met. Dr V. Rakesh, representing the hospitals association said, “In an official meeting, the government had agreed on the figure of `800 crore pending with them and said the remaining Rs 700 was a disputed amount. The government has to get back on the pending bills by verifying it with the hospitals.”

He said the association would only resume services for patients with Aarogyasri cards as well as for the employ health schemes once all the dues are cleared. “Until then the shutdown continues,” he said.