Members of the A.P. Speciality Hospital Association have announced that they will discontinue all cashless services being offered to the people in the network hospitals under the Dr NTR Vaidya Seva from April 7 due to non-payment of dues amounting to ₹3,500 crore by the State government.
Stating that the network hospitals in the State, around 620 in number, are stretched beyond the limit, the members have written a letter to Dr NTR Vaidya Seva CEO P. Ravi Subash pointing out that they are taking the step because there does not seem to be a way out of the situation.
“Despite our best efforts to continue serving the BPL population and support the State government’s healthcare initiatives, the financial strain has made it unsustainable for us to function,” the letter says.
The letter, released to the media on March 8, said the hospitals were struggling to keep the services running, as their monthly operational expenses also had not been paid so far.
In January, Special Chief Secretary M.T. Krishna Babu had announced that the government would release ₹500 crore at the earliest towards clearing a part of the outstanding dues of the network hospitals.
Contrary to the claims, the government did not release more than ₹70 crore in the month of January, association president K. Vijay Kumar said.
“In December last, we were assured that ₹500 crore would be released immediately, but we received ₹400 crore. In January, we received ₹70 crore only,” Dr Vijay Kumar said, adding the government had time and again cited financial constraint because of the previous government as the reason.
“But now, we are in no position to continue delivering services to the people. We have heard that as part of the hybrid model, the government is ready to pay around ₹4,000 crore upfront to the private insurance companies. When they have enough funds to pay them, why cannot they spend the amount on network hospitals,” the president questioned.
Moreover, the association members were not invited for a discussion on making the shift to the hybrid model, where insurance companies would become a part.
“The transition to a hybrid model will have an impact on the network hospitals. But none of us are kept in the loop. We got to know about the developments only through the media,” Dr Vijay Kumar said.
Earlier too, in the month of November, the association had announced that it would discontinue the services, but did not go ahead with the decision after the government promised to release funds.
“Now, there is no choice,” the members said, adding that unless the government announced immediate steps to resolve the issue, they would stick to their decision of stopping cashless services under the scheme. The Hindu