BENGALURU: A acouple of weeks ago, Express reported that 27-year-old Sujith, who was injured in an accident involving a drunk woman car driver on Lalbagh Road, had run into financial troubles to continue his treatment. His family had spent a huge amount during the first three days of his treatment at a private nursing home near Majestic.
The state government provides relief to such victims under schemes of Suvarna Aarogya Suraksha Trust (SAST). Like Sujith, a large number of accident victims and their families are unaware of these health insurance schemes.
SAST is a separate body under the state’s health department which runs the health insurance schemes. One such scheme is the Mukhyamantri Santwana Harish Scheme for accident victims.
According to numbers from SAST, since the launch of Mukhyamantri Santwana Harish Scheme in March, the state has so far received 12,518 claims from accident victims. The scheme guarantees two-day treatment in 771 empanelled hospitals across the state. This includes 294 private hospitals. The scheme can be claimed by an accident victim across Karnataka, irrespective of nationality and financial status.
The state has spent Rs 6.5 crore and is left with Rs 11 crore under the scheme. There are around 25 types of injuries that the state pays for under the scheme, ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 25,000. So far, 18,000 registrations have been made under the scheme.
The annual budget for the scheme is Rs 10 crore, but SAST was left with Rs 20 crore as last year’s budget allocation got carried over.
“Private hospitals like MS Ramaiah, BGS Global, Narayana Health City, Sagar, Yashomati and Mallya are empanelled with us. Government hospitals like Victoria, which has an emergency and trauma care centre, Sanjay Gandhi Institute, and NIMHANS, which has specialised trauma care services, also provide treatment under the scheme. We have made it mandatory for 66 polytrauma hospitals across the state to provide care under the scheme,” said Dr S Dhananjaya, deputy director, SAST.
Hospitals like Apollo and Fortis, however, are not empanelled. Explaining why such hospitals are reluctant to be empanelled, an SAST official said, “If they are empanelled, they will have to treat patients under the stipulated cost. Since they are not empanelled, they can charge however much they want.”
The cost fixed for treatment packages were arrived at after consultation with doctors, which not all hospitals agree with. SAST has four doctors who verify claims made by hospitals under MSHS. “Every month, we get around 2,000 claims, and about 70 per day . In the next six months, we expect the figure to double,” said an anaesthetist who works with SAST. The scheme also covers medico legal cases.