Govt and private hospitals caught in claims and counter claims

Bengaluru: While the Karnataka government has been claiming that it had cleared all the outstanding bills of private hospitals, the managements of corporate hospitals deny the same.

Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust N T Abroo executive director claimed that it has started processing claims that were received in the months of August and September, private hospitals said so far nothing of the sort happened.

"Payments have been made for the claims received till third week of August. For instance, we have recently cleared the claims submitted by Ace Suhas Hospital," said Abroo claimed. However, the private hospitals have countered the claims.

Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) president said, "The association had written to the government and the department of health and family welfare to release the payment for the admissions made through government quota as there is difficulty in maintaining the operation cost.

The government agreed to pay 25% of the charges, but most of the private hospitals are yet to receive the reimbursement. We need to make payments to the vendors and pay salaries to the staff otherwise it is difficult to provide seamless service to the patients. We have requested the government to clear the bills in three weeks so that the patients don't suffer.

Further, the private hospitals alleged that the government is coercing private hospitals to reserve 50% of beds for Covid-19 patients referred by the government.

"Small hospitals which refuse to admit Covid patients citing infrastructure and manpower reasons were forced to give 50% of their beds but till date no patients has been referred in some of their hospitals and those hospitals cannot use the reserved beds for non-Covid purposes. Such hospitals have incurred massive losses," said Prasanna H M, president elect, PHANA.

Another senior official in SAST stated that they came across several cases where private hospitals were demanding claims from the SAST even after charging the patients for their treatment. "134 such cases have been identified after which we have recommended the health department to take action against them," the SAST official alleged without revealing the names of the hospitals.