A day after Punjab’s private hospitals stopped cashless services under Ayushman scheme alleging that the State Government failed to clear Rs 600 crore dues, the state’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Thursday strongly refuted the claims made by the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (PHANA) Punjab.

Dubbing PHANA’s claims that the State Government owes over Rs 600 crore for various treatments availed under the Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojna as “false and misleading”, Dr Balbir revealed that the total pending amount for both public and private hospitals is just Rs 364 crores.

As per the official data, the breakdown of pending payments shows that Rs 166.67 crores are owed to public hospitals, while private hospitals are due Rs 197 crores. The clarification comes a day after PHANA announced that it would stop all treatments under the Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojna across empaneled private hospitals in the State.

Health Minister said that since April 1, 2024, the Government has disbursed Rs 101.66 crores to private hospitals and Rs 112 crores to public hospitals, totaling Rs 214.30 crores.

Dr Balbir explained that technical glitches arose from February 2024 after switching to new software for claim processing launched by National Health Agency (NHA), which resulted in slowing down the claim processing. However, the State Health Agency (SHA) took prompt measures including deputing more staff and working on weekends and holidays, to address the issue.

To resolve the matter, the Health Minister has called a meeting with PHANA representatives on Friday. Additionally, a meeting with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also been fixed on September 25, 2024, at 3:30 pm to address any concerns regarding payments and SHA functioning.