Cashless service likely to be suspended for beneficiaries of CGHS, ECHS as govt. has not paid dues

Hospitals are on the verge of collapse and cashless service is likely to be suspended, warned the Indian Medical Association and the Association of Healthcare Providers (India), stating that thousands of crores are due to be paid by Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) to private hospitals.

Several months

The outstanding dues have been pending for the past several months, with repeated attempts by hospitals and associations not yielding any response, they noted.

“No interest is paid on such outstanding [sums]. Non-payment of legitimate dues by the government is taking a toll on the day-to-day functioning of the hospitals. Hospitals are unable to pay salaries to employees. Many hospitals have begun to cut down on operations by closing of certain wards/beds,” the group said in a statement released on Thursday.

The group has noted that hospitals are constrained to lay off employees and if the situation is allowed to persist, it is feared that lakhs of hospital employees may lose jobs.

Resource crunch

“The hospitals having been pushed to the brink of unsustainability, will be constrained to suspend cashless services for the beneficiaries of CGHS/ ECHS. Financial resource crunch coupled with reduced number of staff is going to adversely affect patient safety, by which it will have impact on increased morbidity and mortality, without getting noticed,” the group said.

The statement further explained that rates and agreements between the CGHS and hospitals were supposed to be revised every two years, but the CGHS has been unilaterally postponing this without giving any reason. Studies carried out by various institutes show that the rates of many procedures under the CGHS do not cover even the operating cost incurred by hospitals. India currently has less than half the number of hospital beds than needed as per World Health Organisation norms.

Poor access

“Accessibility is even worse as most tertiary care hospitals are confined within metro/ Tier 1/ 2 cities. The current scenario however is not going to encourage any new investment and will adversely affect effectiveness of flagship schemes of the government. Considering that 70% of OPD (Out Patient Department) and 60% of IPD (In Patient Department) patients are being taken care of by private healthcare providers, the likely disruption of health services due to financial crunch is going to impact the national healthcare scenario, more so in tertiary care, where the private sector provides more than 85% of such services,” added the group.