MUMBAI: The sizeable purse allotted to a number of welfare schemes forward of the Meeting election in 2024 has impacted many mainstay authorities schemes.
State owes ₹923 crore to over 1100 pvt hosps below MJPJAY
It has now come to the fore {that a} cash-strapped Maharashtra authorities owes ₹923 crore to 1144 non-public hospitals empanelled below the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY), the general public medical health insurance scheme that covers over 2.8 crore financially underprivileged households. In a cascading impact, this has led to a reluctance amongst non-public hospitals to confess sufferers below the scheme.
The impression on the well being scheme is the results of the federal government’s price range lower by at the very least 20% from the general ₹8.2 lakh crore allotted for FY 2024-25.
The state authorities which spends ₹3100 crore yearly on the scheme, has not settled payments of many non-public hospitals since July 2024. Over 5 lakh persons are its beneficiaries for which the federal government incurs the annual expenditure of over ₹1800 crore; the remaining funds are spent on institution prices, salaries and remunerations of brokers appointed to assist sufferers. The state authorities has paid ₹815.74 crore, leaving payments of ₹923.58 crore but to be paid.
An official from Mantralaya advised HT: “The bills have not been settled despite our constant follow-ups. There are 1792 empanelled hospitals under the scheme, which carry out over 1600 procedures. Of the total empanelled hospitals, 1144 are private, which are facing challenges in admitting more patients under the scheme because of unpaid bills. Many have started refusing patients and admissions are done only after political interventions.”
The officer added, though the federal government is predicted to launch a tranche of the instalment of the unpaid claims this week, it will not cowl your entire dues. An official from the general public well being division added, because of this state of affairs, the federal government could discover it troublesome so as to add extra hospitals to its listing.
“In a war room meeting on February 1, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked the department to add 2300 more hospitals across the state to the scheme, but with the delay in payments to hospital owners, especially in urban areas, we fear that response may be poor,” stated the official from the general public well being division.
The officer added, MJPJAY, which was launched in July 2012, was operated by a state owned insurance coverage firm – United India Assurance — and the funds to the hospitals had been common initially. “Subsequently, the insurance company was suspended as the claims’ rejection rate and the premium became high. The government took over the scheme, promising to pay hospitals directly. But since then, the settlements have been delayed.”
This was corroborated by a senior physician, who is part of the administration of a Mumbai suburban hospital. He stated, “Since the government suspended the insurance company and took it upon itself to pay the hospitals directly, the payments have been delayed by months. Earlier, the payments would be cleared in three weeks.” He added that whereas “Mumbai hospitals are managing to survive, those in the Tier-2 and -3 cities, dependent on the scheme, are suffering a lot.”
Whereas public well being minister Prakash Abitkar was not obtainable for remark, an official from the division, stated: “The minister has held a meeting with finance minister Ajit Pawar and convinced him to release the funds. We expect it to go through soon.”
When HT reached out to Ashish Jaiswal, minister of state, finance, to touch upon the state’s funds, he stated, “There are financial problems, but we have been releasing funds as much as possible. I am not aware of the MJPJAY in particular, but we will release the pending amount soon.”