To provide quick cashless medical facilities to CGHS patients
The Central Government Health Services (CGHS), Hyderabad is collaborating with Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) to offer exclusive services to CGHS beneficiaries at NIMS.
A special block with dedicated team of senior doctors to cater to CGHS insured persons here is on the cards.
Discussions to set up such a facility for CGHS beneficiaries at NIMS are already under way.
“In principle, the institute authorities have agreed to the proposal. Our aim is to provide quick cashless medical facilities to CGHS patients,” Additional Director, CGHS, Hyderabad, Dr. P. Parthasarathy said.
At present, CGHS beneficiaries spend nearly three days to avail specialised diagnostic facilities like CT and MRI scans at NIMS. Even for non-specialised medical facilities like outpatient services and simple diagnostic tests, pensioners are forced to spend the whole day.
In case of medical emergencies, these patients have to pay medical bills upfront at the institute and later claim through reimbursement from CGHS.
For diagnostic tests like CT and MRI scans, they have to submit a referral letter from the local CGHS dispensary, collect doctor’s prescription of NIMS and submit it back for approval. On an average, it takes three days for the CGHS beneficiary to complete this process.
“During emergencies, beneficiaries can directly get admitted to NIMS. But, they have to pay medical bills upfront and later apply for reimbursement. However, not all pensioners can handle medical bills this way. Exclusive services for CGHS at NIMS should be started quickly,” says general secretary, National Coordination Committee of Pensioners Association (NCCPA).
According to CGHS authorities, details on billing their patients are yet to be finalised.
“We are planning in such a way that patients need not pay anything up front. All the bills from NIMS will be directly sent to us. We have assured them that the bills will be cleared by us quickly,” Dr. Parthasarathy adds.
Additional Director, CGHS, Hyderabad, Dr. Parsthasarathy and NIMS Director, A. Dharma Rakshak have held meetings to hammer out the details for the project. “We are hoping that such services for CGHS patients will start by December if not later,” Dr. Parthasarathy said.
Its a very good start up to improve medical facilities.
This is a step in right direction. All the CGHS beneficiaries have been experiencing lot of difficulty in getting treatment from the hospitals as these people do not have a hospital designed by the central government in this city. The progress so far has been tardy and one looks forward to the day when these difficulties will become a thing of the past.
Absolutely this is a good idea, as my father is a CGHS beneficiary, I have experienced it. We have to take the permission from the concerned office and to submit to the Medical authorities, if there is any small interruption, they would send it back and again have to take the permission, sometimes it is very difficult to do so. It is much difficult for people who are in below poverty line, even though they are Government servents.
This is a good development indeed. CGHS can also build a super speciality hospital at Hyderabad so that lot of money reimbursed now to private hospitals can be saved. Also there is a complaint that Private hospitals are making exorbitant charges from CGHS benificiaries and a CBI check of one or two cases from each of the private hospitals can help improve situation. Genuine medical services shall definitely help take nation ahead.
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