The Andhra Pradesh Speciality Hospitals Association (ASHA) has announced its decision to withdraw its services from the EHS (Employees Health Scheme) of the Government of AP, with effect from Jan. 15.
It has sent letters to the CEO of NTR Vaidyaseva Trust, the Principal Secretary of Health and Health Minister Kamineni Srinivasa Rao, expressing their inability to continue their services under EHS scheme for employees and pensioners, according to ASHA president V. Murali Krishna.
Notwithstanding the promise made by the Chief Minister and even after multiple meetings the issues regarding costing were not resolved and consensus was not reached. “After the final meeting with the government on Dec 13, 2016, the association received minutes of the meeting, which was not in line with the discussion held and many terms and conditions, which were earlier accepted, were not mentioned,” he said .
While appreciating the ‘health for all’ initiative of the government, the association wanted a detailed costing exercise done by a third party as the hospitals cannot serve all the categories of patients in subsidised packages, where the indirect costs of the hospitals were not taken into consideration in determining the package price.
The ASHA hospitals demand either validation of the costing exercise done by them or to constitute a legally valid costing committee to cover all the costs in health care delivery under both EHS and Health for All schemes
