Coimbatore: After the state government revised the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 by fixing minimum wages for employees of private hospitals and nursing homes, the India Medical Association (IMA) has demanded the state government and private insurance companies to revise the rate per operation.
While the management cost has been increasing at exorbitant rate, the package rates under the chief minister’s comprehensive health insurance scheme has not been revised for a decade, said national co-ordinator for insurance related issues of IMA AK Ravi Kumar. The insurance amount for the operations cover only 30% of the cost adding the burden of the increased salary on the private hospital, he added.
In March, the labour department, with immediate effect, has fixed the minimum wages of the employees of private hospitals. According to the doctors, the minimum wage is several times higher than the actual wages being paid to staff. Also, the insurance companies have started to insist that the hospitals’ staff strength should be as per the Indian Public Health (IPH) standards and the staffs should be of Indian Nursing Counsel (INC) standard, which makes the expenditure on salary for staff higher.
Now, the private hospitals not just have to pay the staffs the higher wages but also increase the staff strength, Ravi Kumar said, adding that they are left with no other option but to close the small and medium hospitals across the state, if they continue to treat patients under insurance schemes as per the current rates.
“In the current situation, the insurance cover per operations should be revised as per the current standards or the doctors would withdraw from attending the patients under insurance cover,” he said, adding that the association has started to prepare package rates as per the current standard.
The costing would be done before May 7 and we would be negotiating with the insurance companies, Ravi Kumar said that if the companies do not accept the revised charges, IMA would announce to withdraw insurance cases by the middle of June.
