HYDERABAD: Patients seeking treatment under the government’s Arogyasri scheme will be turned away from private hospitals from Wednesday. Private hospital managements have declared a virtual boycott of the signature healthcare scheme after the government decided to pull 133 medical procedures out of their purview and give them to state hospitals exclusively.As per this decision, patients needing these 133 procedures will be eligible for Arogyasri benefits only if they have them done at government hospitals. Incensed by this loss of business, private hospitals decided to deny healthcare to patients for all the 938 procedures covered by Arogyasri.The government’s decision to limit 133 procedures -- most of them simple surgeries -- as a way by which revenue would accrue to government hospitals, which are perennially cash-strapped. Also, the government hopes to rein in the trend of private hospitals treating Arogyasri as a cash cow by encouraging unnecessary referrals and inflated bills.Among the 133 procedures sought to be made the sole preserve of government hospitals are hysterectomies, appendectomy, hernia, gall bladder operations, kidney- and pancreas-related ailments and all laparoscopies. Each of these procedures cost Arogyasri in the range of Rs 30,000-50,000. The payout on account of these amount to about 20 per cent of the total expenditure on Arogyasri. Thus about Rs 190 crore of business will now go entirely to government hospitals.But strangely, health minister D L Ravindra Reddy is opposed to his own ministry’s decision. “The government made a wrong move by diverting Arogyasri patients to government hospitals many of which are not equipped to deal with these procedures,” he said and vowed to restore the referrals to private hospitals.Notably, corporate hospitals, which do superspeciality surgeries, are not part of this boycott, which was declared by the AP chapter of the Indian Medical Association and AP Nursing Homes Association (APNA).The government took its decision when the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Arogyasri Trust and private hospitals in 10 districts expired on July 16. In the fresh MoU, it pulled out 133 ailments and surgeries out of the 938 mandated under Arogyasri and entrusted them exclusively to government hospitals. The MoU is signed between the Arogyasri Trust, the insurer company and network hospitals every year.The network hospitals protested, stating that these 133 procudures account for about 60-70 per cent of their Arogyasri patients and their exclusion would cause them loss of business. Adilabad, Guntur, Hyderabad, Khammam, Krishna, Kurnool, Nizamabad, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Warangal are the districts where the new MoU has come unstuck. The AP chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Andhra Pradesh Nursing Homes Association (APNA) have declared that private nursing homes in these 10 districts will no longer admit Arogyasri patients needing any treatment.In the remaining 13 districts of the state, Arogyasri will hold for now, until the MoU comes up for renewal. This will be November in eight districts and March next year in five.Having walked out of Arogyasri, private hospital managements have already put the squeeze on patients, most of them poor. They have been told to either vacate their beds or pay the rate-card fee.
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