This is after the court found that the state had no explanation for not clearing the dues of over ₹500 crores to hospitals under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The court revealed that the state received a share of funds from the government of India but failed to pay the hospital’s dues. “The reasons, which have been mentioned in the affidavit (submitted by the Punjab Government) reflect that the State of Punjab does not intend to comply with the directions,” Justice Kuldeep Tiwari stated.
He said that the state was given 4 months to furnish the details of where the money was spent, but the state had no intentions to provide such details.
The observation came as several hospitals from Punjab sought the release of funds from the state government under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. It was noted that the state only released ₹26 crore against bills amounting to ₹500 crore.
In September last year, the court asked the state to provide details of expenses to examine whether the funds provided by the Center to the state had been misutilized. Recently, the court had asked the State Principal Secretary of Finance to comply with the judicial directions, but to no avail.
Ever since its launch in the state of Punjab, the scheme of Ayushman Bharat has always been a matter of concern as private hospitals complain that they never get reimbursements from the state on time. As per the scheme, the cost of treatments to the hospitals should be reimbursed within 14 days of submitting the bills. There is a provision of 1% per annum interest payments to hospitals in case of delay in payments.
Private hospitals have been complaining that these payments have never been made on time. In 2021, private hospitals in Punjab stopped treatment citing undue checking by the insurance company hired by the government to make payments on its behalf. In 2022, private hospitals further denied treatment to patients under the scheme, citing pending payments of Rs 130 crore.
Earlier the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in Haryana also stated that around 600 private hospitals in the state had decided to stop treating patients under the Ayushman Bharat scheme from February 3rd. The IMA’s Haryana unit said that the patients at the private hospital relying on the slated government health scheme would hardly benefit from the scheme as the doctors would not treat them under the said scheme. As per the unit, the government had not yet cleared the reimbursement of the hospitals worth ₹400 crores.
As per the reports, there are around 1300 hospitals eligible for the Ayushman Bharat scheme, of which 600 are private facilities. The Ayushman Bharat scheme launched by the BJP government in 2018 aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low-income earners in the country. In the state of Haryana, there are around 1.2 crore people who are registered under the scheme.
The association opined that the private hospitals were not able to manage their expenses while treating the patients under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, given no reimbursement from the government.
However, now the court has observed that the Government of India had provided funds to the state which were further not transferred to the hospitals running the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. “The information shall be provided to this Court regarding the intent of the State of Punjab whether they are ready and willing to make compliance of order (supra) positively by the next date of hearing,” the court said adjourning the case.
