Himachal cashless treatment scheme to continue: Minister

Shimla, Aug 8 (IANS) There is no intention of closing HIMCARE, a scheme of the Himachal Pradesh government to provide cashless treatment, as being propagated by the Opposition, but loopholes in the scheme need to be plugged, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Thursday.

Chairing the first meeting here of the Cabinet sub-committee constituted to look into the anomalies which came to the fore in the HIMCARE and the Centrally-aided Ayushman Bharat Yojna, he said HIMCARE would continue.

Health Minister, Dhani Ram Shandil, Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar, Revenue Minister, Jagat Singh Negi and Youth Services and Sports Minister Yadvinder Goma were present as members of the committee.

Agnihotri said lots of hue and cry were being made by the Opposition pertaining to the closure of the HIMCARE by the government.

He said the scheme started during the BJP regime had lots of loopholes where checks and balances pertaining to reimbursement of claims had no clear mention as such.

Many such instances have come to notice where the amount of medical bills and that of treatment differed. The claim amount was on the much higher side. The committee will look into all the aspects of the scheme with added reforms and guidelines together plugging the pilferage, said Agnihotri.

He said there was a liability of Rs 457 crore which includes Rs 150 crore as the liability of private hospitals and around Rs 307 crore of government hospitals.

"As far as the Ayushman Bharat scheme is concerned, it was informed that there was a cap of only including 5.32 families under the scheme whereas 14.83 lakh families were still left out to be brought under its ambit," he said.

It was decided that the issue would be taken up with Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to remove these restrictions and to cover the entire populace of the state under the Ayushman Bharat soon.

As far as funding is concerned under the Ayushman Bharat, the state government was receiving only Rs 50 crore per annum from the Centre, as a fixed amount.

Agnihotri said the funds received from the Centre have already been utilised during the first six months and the entire burden rests on the state government to bear the excess cost, which was likely to cross over Rs 100 crore at the end of this fiscal.

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