THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ambitious ‘comprehensive accident insurance scheme’ floated by the state government is facing strong headwind with insurance companies turning hostile towards the very proposal.
An integral component of the trauma care project announced by the government last November, the scheme guarantees free medical treatment to all road accident victims with the help of insurance companies in the public and private sectors. But with the insurance companies turning their back on the scheme, its very future now hangs in the balance.
“The comprehensive accident insurance scheme is actually a joint initiative in which public/private hospitals, insurance companies and the Kerala Road Safety Authority will become stakeholders. But from the conceptualisation stage itself the insurance companies had expressed their disinterest towards it,” said an officer with the Health Department. It is learnt that though the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) had invited an expression of interest from the public and private insurance companies in January, not a single company responded to it. Following the lukewarm response, the state government in April convened a meeting of representatives from the insurance sector. But representatives from only 11 companies turned for the meeting.
Health Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan told Express with the insurance companies remaining unenthusiastic towards the very initiative, health department has started to explore the alternatives including ‘approaching the state government for a revised sanction for inviting a fund-manager’. But he said talks will continue with the insurance companies to convince them to be part of the original scheme.“Our idea was that those insurance companies associating with the scheme will have to enter into a contract with the private hospitals to reimburse the costs of treating a road accident victim within 21 days. Though we think it’s a win-win deal, insurance companies cite some technicalities with the Insurance Act to remain neutral,” said Rajeev Sadanandan.
Meanwhile, another component of the trauma care project, the ‘GPS-enabled ambulance network’ is said to be nearing completion as KMSCL, which had invited a tender for the same, has started to conduct the technical evaluation of the two bids submitted for the project.According to the Health Department, once it is completed, the financial bid will be floated and then the work will be awarded to the competent bidder. The mobile app-based ambulance network, which plans to rope in 315 ambulances, plans to provide free of cost service to road accident victims.