Private hospitals backing away: Government employees grapple with Medisep

Thrissur: Government employees and teachers taking medical treatment under the Medisep scheme are now in quandary. A notice issued states that many hospitals that were earlier included in the list will not be offering Medisep services January onwards. Employees are worried that withdrawal of multispeciality hospitals will hinder good treatment. 

The current crisis stems from the fact that the insurance benefits, which were expected to be around Rs 700 crore, have now crossed the Rs 1000 crore mark. Many private hospitals also charge the fees upfront for various treatments that should be offered free of cost. This goes against the whole purpose of Medisep. 

With the introduction of the Medisep scheme, the government had waived the reimbursement facility. Earlier, the treatment cost was almost fully reimbursed. 

The employee unions are standing united in their demand to maintain the Medisep benefits. This scheme is available in 553 hospitals. So far, 5,20,780 people have benefitted through this scheme. Of this, 4,78,682 were claimed in private hospitals. 4,75,212 claims have been accepted. So far Rs 11,03,85,10,564  has been sanctioned as insurance of which Rs 10,34,45,03,859 was given to private hospitals.

There are about 1500 hospitals in the Kerala Private Hospital Association. Many prominent hospitals were added into the Medisep scheme by the government under pressure. Now, the insurance company has announced  the suspension of ten hospitals from the scheme. The project was implemented without assessing the practicalities scientifically, Hussain Koya Thanal, Kerala Private Hospital Association secretary said.