The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has announced that patients registering without an Aadhaar card will have to pay a charge of Rs.100. Currently, patient registration costs Rs. 10.
As per the scheme, which will be implemented soon, the registration charge will be waived off in case an Aadhar card is used.
Digital move
Deepak Agrawal, the chairman of computerisation at AIIMS, said: “Expected to be enforced from January, the move aims at encouraging digital transactions and streamlining patients’ database, which otherwise gets cluttered as many patients misplace documents and Out Patient Department (OPD) cards. At present, a patient has to pay Rs.10 for registration, following which an Unique Health Identification [UHID] number is assigned to him/her.”
“What happens now is that multiple UHIDs gets created for a single patient as he/she misplaces documents and outdoor cards, thus cluttering the data. Most likely from next month onwards, registration will be free for patients who provide their Aadhar number. Those who cannot provide Aadhar card will have to pay Rs.100 for registration.” However, those who cannot pay the hiked registration fee can get it exempted by approaching medical social workers.
Going cashless
AIIMS has already written to the Union Health Ministry requesting it to issue a notification that would mandate linking of Aadhar number with the UHID number.
Meanwhile, AIIMS Deputy Director (Administration) V. Srinivas said AIIMS will procure 100 point of sale machines to promote digital transactions in patient services.
AIIMS has also introduced 200 kiosks where net banking facilities have been operationalised.
Options
A payment section at www.ors.gov.in is operational since last year. To promote digital transaction in the academic section of the institute, a payment section will soon be introduced the AIIMS website, wwww.aiims.edu.
A committee comprising medical superintendent D. K. Sharma, senior financial advisor Raj Kumar and others will be formed to oversee timely-implementation of the use of digital transaction, a release by AIIMS said.
