CGHS-GOOD NEWS

Central employees to get health allowances


There’s good news at last for the nearly 1 lakh employees and pensioners of the Central government in the city, who avail of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).

The Union ministry of health and family welfare has revised the rates for reimbursement of medical expenses prescribed under the scheme.

The ministry has also brought 48 city hospitals and 18 diagnostic centres into the CGHS network.

The CGHS beneficiaries, who had to earlier bear 70 per cent of the cost of treatment, will now be treated absolutely free under the scheme, Harish Radhakrishnan of the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, told reporters here on Friday.

For serving employees, the reimbursement rates have been revised to bring them on par with the existing fees in hospitals, in order to ensure that CGHS beneficiaries are not discriminated against on account of lower entitlement.

Earlier, Radhakrishnan, pointed out daily bed charges payable under the CGHS in Pune were Rs 30, while the figure was Rs 200 in Aurangabad. “In fact the prescribed CGHS rates remained the lowest in the country because they had not been revised since 1983,” he added.

As per the new rates, employees with a basic pay of Rs 7,500 will be entitled to treatment in general wards (at Rs 500 per day), those with basic pay between Rs 7,501 and Rs 10,500, will be treated in semiprivate wards (at Rs 1,000 per day), while those earning more than Rs 10,501 per month as basic pay, will be entitled to private ward (at Rs 1,500 per day). Those admitted to daycare centres for six to eight hours are now entitled to reimbursement of Rs 500 per day.

Hospitals included in the scheme have been asked to submit monthly bills of CGHS patients to the scheme joint director. The bills will be settled in 60 days. Among the participating hospitals and diagnostic centres in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad areas are: Bharati Vidyapeeth hospital, Sancheti institute, Ruby Hall clinic, KEM, Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital, Pune Institute of Neurology, Ratna and Joshi hospitals, Surya hospital, Poona hospital, Colony nursing home, Pune institutes of neurology and ophthalmology, Jehangir hospital, Ayodhya Charitable Trust’s hospital, Sanjeevan and Inlaks Budhrani.

Radhakrishnan added that in addition to seven CGHS dispensaries which offer treatment to patients and refer cases to hospitals for further treatment, the confederation has demanded four new dispensaries.
Source:The Times of India