Private hospitals in Karnataka may suspend the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) by February over pending dues.
This comes after several hospitals in New Delhi served an ultimatum and said they will not entertain patients under these schemes.
In Karnataka, hospitals will give time till the second week of February after which none under the scheme would be considered. This would mean that in Bengaluru alone, two lakh beneficiaries will be affected. Central government employees paid from the Central Civil Estimates, including dependent family members and Central government pensioners and their families are among the beneficiaries.
Dr Alexander Thomas, president, Association of Healthcare Providers India, said, “We have been in talks with the Union government for over a year. In Bengaluru, we will make a formal announcement in January and suspend services by February if bills are not cleared.” Dr Thomas said dues worth Rs 1,200 crore are to be paid to hospitals across the country.
Doctors said that an estimated Rs 600 crore is outstanding in Karnataka alone.
“We have written to the chief minister and prime minister’s office in this regard. We have convened meetings with pensioners’ associations as well and have briefed them about the challenges we are facing,” said Dr Thomas. Meanwhile, Dr Shanmuganandan V C, Advisor, AHPI said the problem persisted across the country.
He said private players had also sought a revision of the rates paid per procedure under the schemes. “It was in 2014 that the last revision was done. Even then, it was for just five procedures. The revision was so minimal that it is not even worth a mention. We want the rates to be revised if the scheme has to be taken forward,” he added.