Govt. Ready to Review Health Insurance Scheme if Private Hospitals Perform

Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Francis D’Souza on Saturday said that if the private hospitals to be empanelled by the United India Insurance Company for treating the patients under the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana want the related rates to be increased, then the government is ready to review the scheme. “However, these hospitals need to come out with impressive output vis-à-vis implementation of the scheme, thus proving their efficiency,” he added.Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’, the Health Minister further said that another demand of the private hospitals as regards handing over to them all the 447 medical/ surgical procedures identified in the scheme is not justified, since 171 procedures entrusted to the private hospitals are important procedures, and pertain to life saving and organ saving.

“The private hospitals are holding to a section of media for making their demands, even before the scheme is implemented,” he lamented, maintaining that the particular scheme formulated for providing health insurance cover to around 3 lakh Goan families is aimed towards helping the people of Goa and not the private hospitals.D’Souza further stated that the government has reserved 276 out of the 447 procedures with only government hospitals as the Goa Medical College Hospital itself has a strong medical staff of over 1,000, including 750 doctors, besides post-graduation students and paramedics. “It is natural that the government wants to attract patients towards its own hospitals, which offer good medical services,” he noted.

The Deputy Chief Minister also said that the task of empanelling private hospitals in and outside Goa under the scheme has been entrusted to the insurance company selected to run the same. “The government has no role in it,” he reiterated.It may be noted that a delegation of representatives of private hospitals had recently met D’Souza and submitted their proposal as regards handing over to the empanelled private hospitals all 447 procedures as well as increase in the rates fixed for these procedures.The state insurance scheme will be implemented from August 15, 2016. The annual financial implication of the scheme is between Rs 100 crore and Rs 125 crore, and the government expects that annually 50 per cent of the treatment money spent under the scheme would come back to the government hospitals in the state.