The administration of Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana (AAUY) has issued show cause notice to Aarogyam Medical College and hospital, Bhagwanpur Haridwar for gross irregularities in registering the hospital under the AAUY and making fraudulent medical claims. 

The AAUY officials were shocked when they realised that though the Aarogyam had claimed that it is medical college and had registered itself with the AAUY as a medical college hospital, it was not in the list of recognised medical colleges of Uttarakhand released by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

 In another glaring anomaly it was found that the hospital had performed surgery on 18 patients even before pre authorisation approval was received from AAUY. The hospital also claimed the reimbursement for these unauthorised surgeries too.

The hospital has treated 518 patients and in 76 cases the treatment was done prior to pre authorisation approval. In many cases the hospital has sought claim enhancement under the scheme in gross violation of norms.

Launched  on December 25, 2018, the AAUY provides a cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum to all 23 lakh families of Uttarakhand in the panelled hospitals under the scheme. The scheme is considered as a dream project of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Patients can avail benefit of the scheme for 1350 types of diseases in the panelled  hospitals. For treatment in the private empanelled hospitals, the patients are needed to be referred from the government hospitals.  As per the provisions of the scheme, the patients should be referred only when the required treatment is not available in the government centres. Though the scheme is gathering momentum in the state, many incidents of irregularities have jolted the officials of the AAUY.

In many cases it was found that the doctors working on contract in government health centres refer patients to the private hospitals they were working. Similarly many cases of fraudulent claims have been detected by the authorities.

Acting on these irregularities, the AAUY has issued notices and lodged cases against some hospitals.