The administration of Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana (AAUY) has cracked whip on the irregularities in functioning of the much acclaimed scheme in the State by lodging a FIR against owner of Astha hospital in Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar for making fictitious claims from the AAUY.

 The AAUY has also cancelled the agreement it had with the hospital to treat patients. The chairman of the State Health Authority, D K Kotia said that on the receipt of evidences of irregularities against the Astha hospital, a two member inquiry team was constituted by the SHA.

 In its report the team found gross irregularities in the functioning of the hospital. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand YojanaAAUY, Yugal Kishore Pant ordered punitive action on the hospital.

Evidences of the irregularities against this hospital were received when the hospital took claim of treating three members of a family from AAUY. Incidentally all three members of the family were shown taking treatment in the hospital on a similar date. 

An inquiry which was ordered thereafter revealed that the owner of the hospital Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta had claimed that he is available round the clock in his hospital (Astha hospital) while into a contract with AAUY in December 2018. The hospital was empanelled in AAUY on December 18, 2018.

The inquiry revealed that Dr Gupta is also employed on contract in the L D Bhatt government hospital, Kashipur.  Dr Gupta himself referred 17 patients from the Government hospital to his own hospital and took claim. The AAUY administration has now decided to recover Rs 3.50 Lakh payment it made to Astha Hospital.

Launched amid much fanfare, on December 25, 2018, the Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana provides a cover of  Rs  5 lakh per annum to all 23 lakh families of Uttarakhand in the panelled hospitals under the scheme.Patients can avail benefit of the scheme for 1350 types of diseases in these 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.

 Those associated with the health services are of the view that the system of referral from a government hospital should be removed to make the scheme free from corruption and hassles. Similarly questions are being raised on the process of empanelment of the scheme.