Chandigarh : Indian Medical Association (IMA) Haryana chapter in a recent meeting held at Chandigarh comprising of Dr Ajay Mahajan President, Dr Dhirender K. Soni General Secretary, Dr Mahesh Datt Chhabra Cashier in the presence of Dr Suresh Arora Chairman of Ayush Bharat Committee raised objection over delayed payment of claims of the patients treated by various hospitals across the state, usually remain hanging unpaid for months by the state health department, whereas according to the contract such medical claims are to be paid to the concerned hospitals within a period of two weeks, failing which the state government is liable to pay amount of the interest on such bills. Dr Suresh Arora,Chairman of the committee further said that besides delay in releasing payment of medical claims to the hospitals the state government health department has started deducting huge amounts from the bills ranging up to 50 to 90% in most of the cases, for one reason or the other. Dr Suresh Arora said that in November 2021 state health had raised a special package of the medical claims, which was never implemented by the government in-spite of several requests by the management of the private hospitals. Dr Dhirender K. Soni said that in present circumstances the private hospitals in the state will be compelled to stop treatment of poor patients under this scheme.
During recent Vidhan Sabha session held at Chandigarh, Congress MLAs Geeta Bhikkal, Bharat Bhushan Batra and Rao Daan Singh had raised serious allegations over large number of irregularities in Ayush Bharat Yozna being implemented in the state, demanding state health minister Anil Vij to intervene into this matter and get investigated all such irregularities, including at the PGIMS Rohtak in which huge amount towards complicated surgeries was claimed related to those already dead, said Geeta Bhukkal that Health Minister wanted to take action against alleged accused being saved by the senior government bureaucrats in the state to avoid action against them. However, Home Minister Anil Vij said that no one has yet born to stop his pen and all those involved in illegal activities will not be spared at any cost.
Among allegations raised by the political leaders in opposition inlcuded that out of the total number of 1 crore 11 lakh cards prepared under Ayushman Bharat Yozna in the state, nearly 92000 cards were suspected fake and cancelled, besides as many as seven FIRs and one police complaint were registered in Gurugram, Palwal, Mohindergarh, Karnal and Yamunanagar districts in this regard. The political leaders in opposition further raised objection that under Ayush Bharat Yozna 12,08,732 medical claims were raised, of these 56,380 cases (nearly 4.6%) were found fake. Information by them also revealed that PGIMS Rohtak raised nearly 3124 claims of value worth about Rs 10 crore, of which nearly 2526 claims of value worth nearly Rs 7 crore were suspected to be alse prepared. On the other hand, allegations were refused stating that during the audit only 31 claims were found false, Vij said that during investigation of 140 allegations regarding raising fake claims of the patients already dead, no such cheating was detected during the audit.
