The private hospitals empanelled under Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojna (SSBY), health insurance scheme run by the state government would not refuse the treatment to the beneficiaries after Deputy Chief Minister OP Soni on Sunday held a meeting with state body of Indian Medical Association and SBI insurance company and amicably resolved all the issues between them.The meeting took place at Circuit House, Ludhiana amid the reports of empanelled hospitals started refusing treatment to the beneficiaries of SSBY.The Deputy Chief Minister who also holds the portfolio as health minister said that the all issues regarding pending payment and other anomalies have been cleared out. He said that insurance company would pay Rs 30 crore to the hospitals in next two days besides clearing remaining payments soon. He also told that a grievance committee would also be constituted comprising officials from health department, insurance company and representatives of IMA state body.Soni also informed that the ambit of health insurance scheme set to be enlarged to cover an additional 1.5 million families and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi would make a formal announcement in this regard.
Deputy Chief Minister cum Health Minister said that this would result in extending insurance benefits of free treatment up to Rs. 5 lakh per annum would be given to those sections of the society who were earlier deprived of this scheme.He also appealed the hospitals to not to refuse treatment to beneficiaries in any situation and added the state government is committed to provide best health services to the poor people under the scheme.Dr Kuldeep Singh Arora, IMA Punjab president thanked Deputy Chief Minister for sorting out grievances between IMA and insurance company. He said that IMA never had any issues with the Punjab government, but with the insurance company as payments worth Rs 140 crores were pending due to which private hospitals were facing acute financial crisis. Arora said that all issues have been resolved between IMA and insurance company.Prominent among present on the occasion included Health secretary Vikas Garg, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, Dr Tejinder Pal Singh, Advisor to Deputy CM and others.