BENGALURU: Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr K Sudhakar announced that the State government has approved and passed an order to provide monetary aid for the treatment of SC/ST patients suffering from diseases categorised as ‘Rare Diseases’ and ‘High-Cost Diseases’ at private hospitals on Thursday.
This monetary aid will be provided by the state government through the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) of the health department, under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (ABARK) scheme, by utilising unspent fund allocation under Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP). The government has even capped the treatment cost of these rare and high-cost diseases.
It is estimated to treat over 465 families a year under the SCSP/TSP at an estimated Rs 4.02 crore. Dr Sudhakar said a total of Rs 23.18 crore of SCSP and TSP fund allocation is unspent and would be used to fund the new scheme.
“With this, the government will provide Rs 1 lakh for immunosuppressive diseases, Rs 30,000 per admission for high and supportive therapy for rare diseases, Rs 2 lakh for renal transplant, Rs 7 lakh and Rs 21 lakh for autologous and allogenic bone marrow transplant respectively, Rs 1.5 lakh for robotic surgeries, Rs 10,000 for PET scan.
They will also be provided money for treatment of other rare and high-cost diseases of Group 2 and Group 3 under NPRD (National Policy for Rare Diseases), including sickle cell anaemia (including matched/unrelated donor stem cell transplantation and others), acute IEM (Inborn Errors of Metabolism), growth hormone deficiency, Osteogenesis imperfect, primary immunodeficiency, even prenatal diagnosis and others,” he said.