Srinagar: 

The Jammu and Kashmir government has issued tenders for hiring an insurer for running the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), popularly known as the golden card scheme, with a curtailed budget and four surgical procedures removed from the list.

The State Health Agency, which monitors and looks after the scheme, has issued tenders for hiring insurance companies, despite the opposition from the privately empanelled hospitals, who had threatened to pull out of the scheme if the government curtails the budget and tweaks the list of surgeries.

254 empanelled hospitals which includes 134 private and the rest of the public (government) hospitals are giving treatment under the scheme which as per the government is benefiting 3487228 beneficiaries, who have availed of the card.

The SHA has issued the tender with certain changes that could hit the scheme and patients. According to the tender proposal, the government has made changes to the Health Benefit Package (HBP) 2.2 which includes the removal of all C-Section packages, reduced package cost of haemodialysis from Rs.1500 to Rs. 1000 for public hospitals, removed UT-specific 10% uniform rate enhancement on packages for private hospitals. And the four surgical procedures- appendectomy (appendicitis) Fissure in Ano, cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal), and hemorrhoidectomy (removal of hemorrhoids)- have been removed from the package for empanelled private hospitals.

Empanelled Health care centre owners are aghast at the government's move and may pull out from the scheme. "Tweaking the budget and removing the four surgeries will indeed impact the patients as we will not be able to give them treatment as per the curtailed package cost," He said the dialysis centres can't afford to provide dialysis to kidney patients at Rs 1300 as the owner can't afford to pay the price from his pocket at this rate. “The government must provide succour and relief to the government but it is giving more pain to patients,” he said.

Sources said the proposed changes were ordered by a committee which was headed by Director General Codes after it was formed on the directions of Chief Secretary Atal Dullo when he had reviewed the scheme on January 19.

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