The Indian Medical Association (IMA) here has informed that the new rates for medical treatment through smart cards issued under RSBY and MSBY schemes by the State Health Department are yet to reach its member doctors.
The RSBY scheme had been under implementation in the State since 2009. Under the scheme, lakhs of patients from poor families had been receiving free medical treatment as beneficiaries for an annual cost limit upto Rs 30,000 while utilising the smart card.
Earlier, there used to be a huge rush of patients in the private nursing homes and some months back the State Government announced that like the medical treatment facilities being extended to the BPl families, the APl families would also be eligible for medical treatment under MSBY scheme.
However, the owners of private nursing homes were not in favour of the State Government's decision on including the APl families under MSBY scheme and stopped medical treatment of the beneficiaries.
The owners of nursing homes had demanded that new rates for medical treatment of BPl and APl families be introduced. They were of the contention that the APl families cannot be treated at BPl rates. Moreover, the insurance companies must make the payments to the nursing homes within a week.
In addition, there were also some other demands in which an IMA delegation had also submitted a revised list of rate to the State Government.
Following this, the State Government released the new rates on Sunday for the beneficiaries who are to use the smart card to receive medical treatment. According to RSBY Additional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vijayendra Katre, the new rates had been published on the website and a list of the new rates had also been sent to the IMA office bearers.
The list informed that a total of 1,161 cases are to receive medical treatment out of which bills had been prepared for 272 cases with the addition of 22 new cases.
The rates had been hiked from four to 200 per cent with a similar rate list for the two schemes. The rates are to be made effective from April 1, 2013.
There are 32 lakh families who are beneficiaries of RSBY scheme and 24 lakh under MSBY scheme. There are currently 56 lakh families holding the smart card who are to be treated under the schemes.
There are eight lakh cards ready to be given to BPl families and 6.50 lakh families for APl families. The process of preparing the rest of the cards is underway.
During 2012, the rates for treatment under the schemes underwent a revision. This is the second time the rates had been revised and there is unlikelihood of rates being revised further in the near future. The IMA has not received the new rates as yet and the information on announcement of the new rates was learnt from newspapers, according to local IMA president Dr Ajay Sahay.