Healthcare services come to a grinding halt in Warangal

Warangal: With the Aarogyasri Health Care Trust (AHCT) failing to clear their dues, nearly 40 network hospitals in the erstwhile Warangal district have suspended healthcare services to those, who are availing Aarogyasri Health Scheme (AHS) and Employee Health Scheme (EHS).

It may be mentioned here that the Telangana Aarogyasri Network Hospitals' Association (TANHA) had set a deadline for the State government to release funds for clearing pending dues to the network hospitals treating patients under AHS and EHS.

With the deadline ending on Thursday (August 15), the TANHA announced block out of health services from Friday.

According to the TANHA, the government has not released funds for the last 14 months. As a result, the dues stand at Rs 1,500 crore. Apart from this, the TANHA is also demanding revision of the MoU between the AHCT and hospital managements, related to charges under AHS.

A private hospital management told The Hans India: "It's going to be a big problem for the lakhs of people who are availing healthcare under AHS and EHS in private hospitals. The network hospitals have been providing OP services, tests, surgeries etc at a very reasonable tariff. Despite this, the AHCT has not released funds to the hospitals since May 2018." He said that they cannot afford to wait anymore. We were forced to withdraw healthcare services, he added.

There's a need for revising the MoU due to the widened gap between the tariffs of healthcare services and increased costs of medical equipment and medicine, he said. The government should give an assurance to release funds within 40 days of a surgery, he demanded.