No Reimbursement for Health Schemes to Shirdi Sansthan

[rOhit beHaL]

In October`1997, the Maharashtra Govt launched the "Jeevandai Arogya Yojana" which promised super specialty services
for patients with serious diseases of the heart, kidney, brain, spinal chord & cancer for which the State Government would
take care of the hospital charges and would pay up to Rs.1,50,000 in individual cases.

The only proof the patient has to submit is the yellow ration card, the BPL certificate from the local gazetted officer
and an advance estimate of expenses from the recognized government and private hospital concerned.
Since a large number of private hospitals are covered under the scheme, patients have a good range of options choose from.

For lakhs of financially weak patients suffering from critical ailments this proved to be a crucial life support system.
However, this scheme started to hurtle towards a problem due to delay at the State Government’s end
in clearing payments of bills worth crores of Rupees to several hospitals which treated poor patients
 making the latter reluctant to take up further treatments.

In October`2010, it came to light that a hospital at Shirdi run by Shree Sai Sansthan had yet to receive
an amount of Rs.18.90 crore from the health department. The dues from previous years were pending too.
Since the Shirdi Sansthan has its own money, they managed to pay for the equipment used in the surgeries.
But sometimes things got difficult for the Sansthan too because they were not getting their money back on time
and the company supplying the equipment for surgery, did not want to wait that long.

Some private hospitals do not want to raise their voices over dues fearing trouble from the government
so the patients, obviously, have to take the brunt as the Private hospitals did not co-operate with them properly
not could give them any surgery appointments soon enough because of their pending dues with the Government.
In that case, the patients had to go to the Government hospitals.



So, in July`2012, to tackle this major problem of the Patients the Maharashtra State Government
launched the "Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana" (RGJAY) which is a good health insurance option
for families earning less than Rs.1 lakh per year. The hospitals on the panel will offer cashless service
so there will be no deposit to be given by the beneficiary nor any payment will be have to be made
even if the hospital charge is more for the procedure. The premium is paid by the Maharashtra Government
for insurance cover up to Rs 1.5 lakh in individual cases or collectively by all members of the family.

By January`2014, the 'Shri Saibaba Hospital' and the multispeciality 'Shri Sainath Hospital' @ Shirdi,
both which are run by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust`Shirdi & both which are empaneled
with the RGJAY, had carried out a variety of operations on the poor & middle class patients by using
the donations that have been offered by the devotees in the Donation Boxes @ the Sai Baba Temple.

They did this with the Faith that, they will get the reimbursement under the State Government's RGJAY Scheme.
But the State Government has delayed their payment to the tune of Rs.64 Crores that were spent
from the Shirdi Sansthan's Donation Box money for the surgeries of the poor & middle class patients
Also, the bureaucrats have dismissed the proposal for sanctioning the relevant bills !

To be noted that under the RGJAY, the Shri Sai Baba Hospital @ Shirdi
has carried out on maximum number of patients in Maharashtra - 714 Operations !
and has overtook even the KEM, Tata Cancer hospital's of Mumbai.
Resulting in an expenditure of Rs.64 Crores, which the State Government has to reimburse it
back to the Shirdi Sansthan and for which the latter has also sent files of 3,500 medical bills
to the State's Mantralaya claiming the reimbursement of Rs.64 Crores.

It has also followed up time & again but the State Administration has taken the stand
of pointing defects in the files & thereby not paying back this amount to the Shirdi Sansthan
which it had spent on carrying out operations on patients on a large scale because unlike other private hospitals,
the Sai Baba hospital does not wait for the amount to be sanctioned from the Government's treasury,
to avoid inconvenience to the patients. Hence the Government has withheld the expense amount for this Operations.












"Medicine is the Only prOfessiOn that labOurs incessantly
tO destrOy the reasOn fOr its Own existence !"
....James Bryce






You have twO chances -
One Of getting the germ and One Of nOt.  
And if yOu get the germ yOu have twO chances -
One Of getting the disease and One Of nOt.  
And if yOu get the disease yOu have twO chances -
One Of dying and One Of nOt.  
And if yOu die - well, yOu still have twO chances !  
....unknOwn






"Drugs are nOt always necessary.  
Belief in recOvery always is !"  
.... nOrman cOusins

rOhitbeHaL