Even as State Government has warned private hospitals from over-charging patients during the pandemic time, government employees are complaining that private hospitals were denying admission to them if they insisted on using the cashless treatment under Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme.
A young government employee has been forced to extend his stay in a private hospital in Dindigul as he was waiting for his insurance papers to be processed after the hospital delayed its process. The man was to be discharged on Tuesday but could not vacate the bed as the insurance claim process was yet to get over.
“The hospital authorities told me that I could not get insurance cover as I had tested negative for COVID. However, I got admitted as there was mild lung involvement as per the scan report,” he said. He has already paid ₹ 1 lakh after pledging jewels. After it was insisted that the CT scan report could be sent to the insurance company to get further details on insurance scheme benefit, the hospital has sent it with inordinate delay.
“Under the cashless treatment scheme, this employee need not have paid so much of money in advance. The very purpose of cashless treatment is defeated as the empanelled hospitals force patients to pay lump sum money in advance,” said Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association, vice-president (Virudhunagar district), C.E. Kannan.
Another employee had a bitter experience as the private hospital in Coimbatore denied her admission when she wanted to be treated under CM’s Insurance Scheme. “Since getting a bed for COVID treatment was a Herculean task, we admitted her there and paid over ₹ 2 lakh till now,” one of her relatives said. After admission, when the relatives approached the chief doctor, as per the advice of the nodal officer for the insurance company, for insurance claim, the doctor lost his cool.
“He shouted and asked us to immediately get the patient discharged and take her to some other hospital. He shouted at his junior doctors for having admitted such patients (who were demanding to make use of insurance cover),” the relative said.
The hospital said that it did not have enough staff to process the insurance papers.
“We have drawn the attention of Chief Minister, Medical and Family Welfare Minister and Chief Secretary about private hospitals across the State denying benefits of cashless treatment to the beneficiaries,” said Mr. Kannan. He said that the private hospitals feared that their “loot” of COVID patients during the pandemic will be revealed if they extended the cashless treatment facility.
Besides warning against over-charging by private hospitals, the government should also monitor them. “It will be better if the government puts cap on different types of treatment and medicines for COVID patients,” he added.
