WARANGAL: Health services in Warangal were hit from Friday as private hospitals withdrew medical services under Aarogyasri Health Scheme (AHS).
About 40 network hospitals across erstwhile Warangal district are refusing treatment under AHS as the deadline set by the Telangana Aarogyasri Network Hospitals Association (TANHA) ended on Thursday.
The state has not paid the hospitals for the last 14 months and the dues have amounted to a whopping Rs 1,500 crore. Apart from this, TANHA has also demanded revision of the MoU between Aarogyasri Health Care Trust (AHCT) and hospital managements, related to charges under AHS.
Dr Radha Krishna from Satya Hospital in Warangal said the state must immediately address the issues of this scheme which helps poor people avail treatment in private hospitals.
“Following the state government’s schemes, we are providing OP services, tests, surgeries, and even giving money to the patients when they leave the hospital. We are providing these services at half the price of private treatment. However, we have not been reimbursed since May 2018. We still continued the services with great difficulty but we cannot continue this further without financial help from the state. Apart from the AHS, we have to bear the expenses incurred in maintaining the hospital and the staff. Hence we are forced to withdraw our services”, he said.
The hospital managements also lament that the prices of the medical equipment and medicine has increased since 2007 but they are still being paid according to the same tariff mentioned in the MoU.
They demand a revision of the tariff and have stated that until the state assures that the funds would be released within 40 days of a surgery through a green channel, they would not resume the services. Patients, especially those availing treatments like dialysis under the AHS, are worried about how they are going to manage the high costs incurred during the treatment.
