Now, government will name and shame fraud hospitals

NEW DELHI: Adopting a zero tolerance policy towards fraud and corruption, the government has decided to “name and shame” hospitals involved in malpractices under its flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, which is now clocking as many as 25,000 hospital admissions a day – five times of what it recorded during the initial months.
During the first three months – after the scheme was kick-started by PM Narendra Modi in September last year – it recorded merely 5000 admissions a day.
However, the improved coverage has also prompted the government and National Health Authority (NHA) – the agency responsible for implementing and managing the scheme – to be more vigilant against fraud.
So far, around 1,200 cases of fraud have been confirmed, while 376 cases are under investigation of NHA. The authority has also de-empanelled 97 hospitals from the scheme, whereas action – including issuance of warning and show cause notice – has been taken against 338 hospitals, health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
“Not only would such hospitals found involved in any kind of fraudulent activity and practices would be de-empanelled, their names would be put up on the official website of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (Ayushman Bharat) and made public. The idea is to name and shame them,” Vardhan said.
To further strengthen the scheme and make it fraud-free, the government plans to give its IT system a major overhaul and make it the “best in the world”.
The government has already spent over Rs 7500 crore towards the claims and is expecting the admissions to go up to about 40,000 per day by end of this year with Punjab and Rajasthan on board.
Ayushman Bharat chief executive Indu Bhushan said the decision to publicly name the health insurance fraudsters under Ayushman Bharat was taken in collaboration with the IRDAI to deter them from indulging in malpractices.
“We are taking Original Article