PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
Taking cognisance of the refusal of the various private hospitals to provide cashless treatment to the patients under the State Government Health Scheme (SGHS), the Health minister Dhan Singh Rawat has directed the State Health Authority (SHA) to ensure that the employees should continue to get the benefit of the SGHS.
Chairing a review meeting of the SGHS on Wednesday, the minister said that a proper plan should be prepared for the scheme. He said that the scheme is very important for the State government employees, pensioners and their dependents. Rawat said that the new plan for the scheme will be tabled in the meeting of the State cabinet.
Officials informed the minister that a sum of Rs 150 crore was collected from the contribution made by the employees and pensioners in the year 2024-25 under SGHS while a sum of Rs 335 crore was spent on treatment.
The order of the minister to SHA assumes significance in the wake of the refusal of many hospitals to treat patients under SGHS. The Himalayan hospital, Jolly Grant, Kailash hospital, Kanishk hospital, Graphic Era hospital, Medanta hospital Gurugram and others have refused the cashless treatment to patients under the SGHS.
It is learnt that a sum Rs 130 crore is to be paid to private hospitals and in absence of the budget the SHA is unable to pay this huge sum to the hospitals.
More than four lakh State government employees and pensioners are covered by the golden card scheme. Under the scheme, the employees get the benefit of cashless treatment in the empanelled hospitals. A fixed amount of money depending upon their grade pays is deducted from the salaries of the employees for the scheme. Similarly pensioners also contribute in the scheme and contribution of both the employees and pensioners is used for cashless treatment under the scheme.
The meeting was attended by director general health services Dr Sunita Tamta, director finance of SHA Abhishek Anand, director administration Dr Vinod Tolia and others.
