THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Finance Department has recommended the Chief Minister’s Office to re-tender for the provider of medical insurance programme for government employees and pensioners.
The move is in the wake of the failure of Reliance General Insurance, which quoted the lowest annual premium in the previous tender, `2,992.48, to empanel sufficient number of hospitals under the MEDISEP network.
Sources in the Finance Department said that the company had failed to bring in sufficient number of hospitals in all the three categories prescribed for the Empanelled Provider Network. The category-I is for general purpose hospitals, category-II for specialty, super speciality hospitals and category-III for hospitals for transplant surgery.
As per the criteria in the Request for Proposal, the insurance provider is responsible for empanelling hospitals and further negotiations with them. “The company failed to include sufficient number of hospitals in the three categories network of hospitals. Also, several hospitals included in the network did not have required standards,” an officer said.
Express had earlier reported that MEDISEP network could include only about 100 hospitals by July end.
Also, prominent hospitals in the public and private sectors were missing from the list.The Finance Minister’s Office said the existing reimbursement scheme for employees would continue until the MEDISEP is implemented.