The government has agreed to enhance by 25-30 per cent the rates for the surgeries/ treatments covered under Aarogyasri Health Insurance Scheme for the empanelled super specialities/ corporate hospitals.
An assurance to this effect was given by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy here on Thursday to a delegation of Andhra Pradesh Super Specialities Hospitals Association (ASHA) and Andhra Pradesh Private Nursing Homes Association (APNA).
Welcoming the decision, leaders of the two associations later announced that they would defer their plan to boycott Aarogyasri scheme from May 3.
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R. Govinda Hari and C. R. Krishna Prasad, general secretaries respectively of ASHA and APNA, who participated in the discussions with the Chief Minister in the presence of N. Srikanth, CEO, Aarogyasri Health Trust, said the patients would be given treatment without any hitch in all the 250 empanelled private super specialities hospitals in the State.
Another positive outcome, they said, was that the Chief Minister had also agreed to appoint a committee comprising two representatives each from ASHA, APNA, the government and the Trust to take a view whether a criminal case could be booked against a particular doctor for negligence or criminal misconduct under the scheme. Hereafter, such cases would be filed against the doctors only after the committee found him/her guilty.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam leaders, who met the Chief Minister later, demanded that those corporate hospitals which were found not fulfilling the commitment they had given to the government at the time of getting incentives like land allotment, should be punished.
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Mr A. Revanth Reddy, who led the delegation, said such hospitals should provide free treatment at 15 per cent to the poor. These hospitals should not claim any costs from the Health Trust when they treat patients from the poorer sections.