Like ‘Tagore’ hospital scene, like YSR’s pet scheme

Aarogya Sri scheme rolled out by the Late YS Rajasekhar Reddy may have a good intention behind. But the scheme is designed in such a way to fill the pockets of private hospitals while government hospitals are not bothered. In just 5 years of this scheme implementation between 2008 and 2012, United Andhra Pradesh had shelled out as much as 1900 Crore as reimbursement to 350-odd private hospitals in the scheme.

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Where as the 150 Aarogyasri-enrolled government hospitals could claim only Rs 400 crore as reimbursement in the same period. This staggering figures were revealed in a study titled: “Use of major surgery in south India: A retrospective audit of hospital claim data from a large, community health insurance program”, by New Delhi-based George Institute of Global Health.

There is a wide criticism that under these scheme, Private hospitals submit fake bills or some times resort to surgeries which are not really needed for the patients. Interestingly, private hospitals in both the states are in consultation with the respective governments to increase the costs of various treatments offered in this scheme.