Thiruvananthapuram: The tussle between private hospitals and the government over unsettled arrears has left beneficiaries of Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP), a healthcare scheme, in the lurch. 

Kerala Private Hospital Association (KPHA) claims that the government is yet to settle arrears worth Rs 500 crore pending for the last six months. The crisis has aggravated as the KPHA claimed that only partial treatment will be delivered under the scheme from Monday, to mark their protest. That means treatments like dialysis and for heart disease will be given. Similarly, based on the amenities of the hospitals critical cases too will be attended. 

KPHA president Adv Hussain Koya Thangal noted that they are not quitting from the scheme “as they are not unmerciful, like the government, to people”. Meanwhile, government sources maintain that though arrears are a reality it has allocated Rs 100 crore as reimbursement amount recently too. 

KASP, the state government’s healthcare scheme implemented in partnership with the central government’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) was launched with the aim of providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family for a year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families. According to KPHA, the number of hospitals cooperating with the scheme dropped from 411 to 350 due to rampant payment delays. 

The government reportedly owes Rs 20-25 crore each to private medical colleges and Rs 1 crore-2 crore each to other hospitals. 75 percent of  Rs 104 crore allocated last October has been given to hospitals. Rs 100 crore and another Rs 150 crore were granted in March and April, respectively. However, only 8 percent of the total hospitals have received the funds.  KPHA also alleged that those allocated funds were used to settle dues of suppliers in various government hospitals. 

Parallelly, the government is planning to bring tweaks to the scheme over the finding of various issues, including that some hospitals increasing treatment rates and seeking more funds than required.