CGHS payment delay worries private hospitals

NEW DELHI: Private hospitals have raised concerns over delay in payment for treating patients under government’s Central Government Health Services (CGHS) scheme. Max hospital has stopped out-patient services for CGHS beneficiaries from today citing long delays in reimbursement, sources said. Some other hospitals may also follow suit.

In a meeting with the health ministry on May 12, private hospitals highlighted an outstanding payment of over Rs 500 crores is pending for a long time and urged the ministry to clear it.

“Huge outstanding from CGHS is proving to be deterrent for hospitals in joining government scheme including Ayushman Bharat,” Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) director general Girdhar Gyani said.

Gyani said while the government had assured the industry that the payment will be cleared soon, the concerns are yet to be resolved and hospitals are under financial distress because of this.

However, official sources maintain that there are no disruptions in services.

Apart from Max Healthcare, other hospitals with major outstanding payment from CGHS are Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Assam’s Down Town Hospital, Pune’s Ruby Hall Clinic, Fortis, Apollo and others, sources said.

“CGHS payments do not come in time and this causes a lot of distress. We are providing these services to government at very low rate and then if there is a delay in payment, then we have to incur operational losses” said a senior executive with a private hospital.

The issue assumes significance because government officials — who are the primary beneficiaries of the CGHS insurance scheme — may have to face difficulty to get treated at private hospitals if the delay in payments continue.

Earlier this year, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya had informed Parliament that the government has settled claims worth Rs 1,330 crore with CGHS empanelled hospitals during the current financial year 2021-22. Mandaviya also said that the government is in consultation with hospitals to address their issues.