GDMC hospital suffering from delay in Ayushman reimbursements of UP patients 

Sunday, 27 AUGUST 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital here is suffering from the delay in reimbursement of the bills of the patients from Uttar Pradesh treated by it under the Ayushman scheme. The hospital authorities disclose that they have not received payment of the bills worth more than Rs 1.50 crore. These payments are due on UP and other States such as Haryana and Bihar though UP’s dues amount to the highest share of these pending bills. The Aysuhman reimbursement bills of these States have been pending for the last six months. 

The medical superintendent of the GDMC hospital, Dr Anurag Agarwal told The Pioneer that the hospital has sent letters to the State Health Agency (SHA) of Uttarakhand and the departments concerned of these States and requested that the pending bills should be cleared soon. The deputy superintendent of the GDMC, Dr Dhananjay Dobhal said that the hospital has also discovered that some of the Ayushman cards submitted by the patients for treatment were fake. He said that the hospital came to know about these fake cards when their claims for reimbursements were declined. Interestingly, the pre authorisation process needs to be done at the time of initiation of the treatment and it is given by the government or the department concerned that has issued the card. In this case the pre-authorisation of the cards was done by the authorities in UP but at the time of reimbursement the payment was declined. It is learnt that most of the hospitals in Dehradun are declining treatment to the Ayushman card holders of UP but GDMC hospital is continuing to treat patients from UP. One senior official of GDMC hospital said that it will be difficult to  continue treating patients from UP if the problem of delay in payment and fake Ayushman cards is not solved. It is pertinent to mention here that a large number of patients from neighbouring States particularly UP visit GDMC for treatment. The patients having Ayushman cards are given free treatment under the scheme when the patient is admitted in the hospital.