PANAJI
Though many of the cases have been cleared by the insurance company tied up with the scheme, the system still need to address some minor glitches. The state health department has also decided to call for a weekly meeting with the insurance company and the empanelled hospitals to discuss the status of cases.
One of the empanelled hospitals, Dona Paula-based Manipal Hospitals have so far treated over 300 patients under the scheme. They have since the launch of the scheme also included consultation charges for patients coming to the hospital with DDSSY cards.
Most procedures performed at the hospital include that of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, urology and cardiology related cases, joint replacements and operations involving use of stents.
Speaking to The Goan, specialist at Manipal Hospitals Dr. Shekar Salkar said, “There were issues when the scheme first started but in another month’s time, there will be smooth functioning of the entire system of working.”
In October this year, representatives from the 19 empanelled hospitals met with officials from the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and the insurance company, United India Insurance Ltd.
During that meeting, hospital representatives said they were facing IT issues with uploading patients files and documents as a result of which, the insurance company had failed to release payments to the hospitals.
Insurance officials present for the meeting had also promised to resolve the issue. Months after that initial meeting, another meeting with the same stakeholders was held on Thursday during which the IT issue came up yet again.
“When the scheme began, there were issues. Today, the only problem is with the uploading of the documents. Usually it would take five hours to upload one patient’s documents, this has been reduced to an hour now,” he said.
Weighing in on the entire issue, Health Minister Francis D’Souza asked the hospitals and insurance company to resolve small issues without causing any trouble to the patient. In this regard, a decision was also taken for the hospitals, insurance company and DHS to have weekly meetings instead of monthly meetings for better resolution of issues facing them.
