Aarogyasri boycott: 12,000 patients to be hit

Hyderabad: Nearly 12,000 patients availing out-patient services in private hospitals under the Telangana government's Aarogyasri scheme will be hit by the boycott of Aarogyasri OP and diagnostic services by 220 network hospitals from Tuesday.

The 220 hospitals, under the aegis of Telangana Network Hospitals Association, said they will be boycotting Aarogyasri OP and diagnostic services from Tuesday and all Aarogyasri services from December 1, unless the government clears their dues. According to the association, dues to tune of Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore have been pending over the past seven to eight months.

As a result, the network hospitals have been unable to meet the basic maintenance and input charges for Aarogyasri patients.

"If our dues are not cleared, it will be impossible for us to extend services to beneficiaries of Aarogyasri and Employee Health Scheme. As our members are struggling to bear the burden of these dues, we have decided to suspend services under these schemes. Over the last 3-4 years, about 12 hospitals have shut down because of this, while another 10 hospitals or so are on the verge of closure," said T Hari Prasad, state secretary, Telangana Network Hospitals Association.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior employee of a network hospital in the city said, "Our hospital has seen a change of ownership twice in the last three years, as the pending dues have made it difficult to continue with the services and forced the owners to sell."

The Telangana Network Hospitals Association had submitted a memorandum to the state health authorities and the Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, informing them about the decision to boycott out-patient and diagnostics services from November 20 unless dues were cleared and extend it to all services from December 1.

The state health authorities, however, have been maintaining that the pending dues are just Rs 546 crore, including Rs 378 crore for Aarogyasri and Rs 168 crore for EHS.

As per Aarogyasri Health Care Trust records, around 1000-1200 in-patient services are recorded each day.

"These include surgeries and procedures too. The outpatient numbers are huge and if hospitals boycott services, it will have a huge impact on under-privileged patients. We are working out the modalities," said a senior health department official.