VIJAYAWADA: The representatives of the Andhra Pradesh Specialty Hospitals Association (ASHA) stated that the government’s negligence in paying funds related to Arogyasri, Employees Health Scheme (EHS), and other health schemes in the State will make managing private hospitals extremely difficult.
“The State government is not providing sufficient payments to private hospitals through the Aarogyasri scheme, and further aggravating the situation by delaying payments for more than six months,” stated Vice President of the association Dr Y Ramesh Babu.
Managing the hospitals has become burdensome as they have to invest in the beneficiary’s care. Dr Babu revealed that nearly Rs 1,500 crore of Arogyasri payments were yet to be released by the government and appealed to the authorities to release the arrears every 45 days as per the MoU.
Another Vice President Dr K Vijay Kumar pointed out that the government made partial payments to hospitals in August and for some in September, but since then, they haven’t released any further funds regarding arrears.
He stressed the distinction between surgical and medical procedures, emphasising that the costs of medical procedures cannot be standardised.ASHA Secretary Dr Avinash recommended that the incoming government consider implementing an insurance method similar to that during the launch of the Arogyasri scheme under Dr YS Rajashekar Reddy’s tenure, as the current packages do not adequately cover the actual procedure costs.
District Coordinator Dr Nageswara Rao noted that when Arogyasri was launched in 2013, under poverty line beneficiaries were minimal, with an income ceiling of Rs 70,000 per family. However, this has since increased to Rs 5 lakh, and the number of procedures covered has risen from 900 to 3,200. He said several high-end hospitals have expressed inefficiencies in implementing Arogyasri which shows the current situation and the number raised of the situation remains the same.