TG network hospitals to stay away from NEHS

Hyderabad: “Once bitten, twice shy”. This sentiment seems to be pervasive among members of the Telangana Aarogyasri Network Hospitals Association (TANHA), which has decided not to participate in the New Employees Health Scheme (NEHS) unveiled by the state government. Under NEHS, government employees and pensioners would get cashless treatment in empanelled health facilities, including major corporate hospitals across the state.

Representatives of the Telangana Aarogyasri Network Hospitals Association point out that the rates prescribed in the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) are lower than the Aarogyasri rates. They stressed the need to have health experts in the decision-making body/trust since domain experts will be able to handle health matters better.

They said that the government has been insisting on lesser rates even after deducting 1.5 per cent of the basic pay from the salaries of the government employees and pensions of pensioners.

Talking to The Hans India, TANHA president Dr Vaddiraju Rakesh said that for an orthopaedic procedure, the old rates were Rs 32,100 under Aarogyasri. This was increased to Rs 40,000 after pressure from the hospitals. But now in the NEHS, the rates prescribed are Rs 26,500. Similarly, under the gynec and obstetrics for a normal delivery, the Aarogyasri package is Rs 9,200, the CGHS Tier-3 package is Rs 21,612 and now for the same procedure under NEHS, it is Rs 15,530.

Dr Rakesh said that they had requested the government to include representatives of the network hospitals in the trust but there was no representation. “For the last two months, we have been requesting the Aarogyasri Trust CEO, Health Secretary, Health Minister to include our members but no representation has been given to Network Hospitals.

We have to convey our issues to the CEO, who will raise this in the board meeting. We don’t know how far he would convey our issues in the meeting. Whom should I tell my problem? Whether to the CEO or the employees? Our member should be in the board. There is a 30- member board but not a single person from our side,” said Dr Rakesh, adding at least the government should have given representation to the doctor MLAs. There are presently 17 doctors serving as MLAs in the Telangana Assembly.

The TANHA president said that already there was a burden of Rs 2,000 crore, which the government has not paid for 14 months. The EHS dues have not been given even after two years and there is no redressal mechanism. The managements are changing but credit bills are not coming. He said that they had met the TNGOs, TGOs and informed them about the government pricing, but none seem to be bothered.

When contacted, doctors said that there should be a scientific approach.