THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 51,488 claims worth Rs 155 crore have been settled under the Medisep health insurance programme for government employees and pensioners in the first hundred days. The scheme has 29.66 lakh beneficiaries. An amount of Rs 110 crore has been granted to the participating hospitals so far. Most claims were given for knee replacements, haemodialysis and cataract surgeries. Claims worth Rs 891 crore were approved for 448 knee replacements.
While more claims were reported in Kozhikode, the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and Amala Hospital in Thrissur topped the list of hospitals in the government and private sectors from where maximum claims were availed.
A total of 680 claims worth Rs 1.64 crore were submitted by the RCC and 2014 claims worth Rs 6.54 crore were submitted by the Amala Hospital. The other best performers in the government sector were the Government Medical Colleges in Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Kozhikode. The best-performing hospitals in the private sector were NS Cooperative Hospital, Kollam; AKG Hospital, Kannur; MVR Cancer Care Centre, Kozhikode, and the District Cooperative Hospital, Kozhikode.
Finance Minister K N Balagopal presented the certificates to the best performing hospitals as part of the 100th-day celebrations of the programme held in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Oriental Insurance chief regional manager Ramadevi was felicitated during the programme. The minister said that the scheme will be strengthened and that more private hospitals have been asked to join.
Finance Resources secretary Mohammed Y Safirulla and Medical Education Department additional director M H Abdul Rasheed attended the function. Medisep covers 1,920 treatments and surgical procedures, including pre-existing diseases. The policy cover is for three years on a floater basis. Each year, the beneficiary is entitled to Rs 1.5 lakh fixed coverage and Rs 1.5 lakh floater. The unutilised floater benefit will be carried over to the next year. Thus, a person who has not availed of the floater in the first year will be eligible for Rs 4.5 lakh next year. In addition to these, beneficiaries with catastrophic illnesses are given assistance from the Rs 35 crore corpus fund maintained by the insurance company.