Haryana IMA seeks clarity on State govt.'s cashless treatment scheme for accident victims

The Hindu

a day ago

In the wake of the Haryana Health Department's order to onboard all hospitals for a cashless road accident victims treatment scheme, the State chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has sought clarity on its various aspects, including the rates prescribed for the treatment.
The scheme, launched in Haryana earlier this year as a pilot project along with five other States, had failed to take off after the private hospitals backed out of it citing several reasons, including the meagre treatment rates.
In a letter to the Director General Health Services (DGHS) seeking clarification on the various aspects of the scheme, the Haryana IMA has sought details about the rates prescribed for the services such as consultation, ICU charges, room rent; the mode of payment; procedure for the empanelment of non-Ayushman Hospitals and access to the portal for the registration of these cases.
The DGHS has directed all civil surgeons to onboard all hospitals for the scheme, especially those not empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat.
Under the scheme, notified by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in 2025, the road accident victims would be administered cashless emergency care of up to ₹1.5 lakh with a cap of maximum of seven days.
The scheme is applicable across all categories of roads including National and State Highways and municipal roads.
Former IMA chief Ajay Mahajan told The Hindu over phone that the government had earlier offered very low rates, only ₹1,000 per day including ICU charges, surgery, medicines and the investigations expenses.
'It is a good scheme and could help save road accident victims offering timely treatment. But the rates offered earlier were not practical. Many Ayushaman empanelled hospitals came forward, but had to back out due to very low rates and delayed payments. The road accident victims suffer multiple injuries and might require a lot of investigations such as frequent MRI. So, this scheme failed to take off in Haryana and now DGHS has asked civil surgeons to enrol other hospitals too. But there is no clarity on how the hospitals would be paid. This is bound to fail again,' said Dr. Mahajan.
'Meagre payment'
In March too, the IMA had written to the DGHS after the launch of the scheme expressing concerns over low rates and lack of clarity on various issues.
'Unfortunately, at present the pilot project is being launched in Haryana without proper preparations. There are no proper guidelines on how the payments will be made, no separate MoU has been done and few cases that have been claimed are being paid a measly sum of ₹1,000 per day for general ward for a head injury case in Intensive Care Unit,' the letter had read.
DGHS Manish Bansal did not respond to calls and text messages to seek his response.