Chitwan. Bharatpur Hospital here has stopped 24 types of tests specified in the insurance after not receiving the payment due through health insurance since Shrawan. The hospital has stated that it has stopped the service as it has become difficult to purchase the reagents (chemicals) required for the tests.
The hospital’s Medical Superintendent, Pradhan Krishna Prasad Poudel, informed that the services were stopped after the insurance board did not pay Rs 500 million. According to him, the tests that have been stopped since April 1 are not essential tests.
Earlier, the insurance board had made a policy that tests could be conducted only once in three months. Tests like vitamin D and vitamin 12 have been stopped through insurance. Poudel said, ‘We have not stopped essential tests. Since the purchase of the kits and chemicals for those tests is expensive, the tests are also expensive. That is why they had to be stopped.’
He said that due to the insurance board not paying, there is a problem in purchasing the company that brings medicines to the pharmacy, reagents (chemicals) and other materials used in the laboratory. According to him, more than Rs 120 million is yet to be paid since Falgun. He says that those companies are finding it difficult to provide the hospital with the same.
The hospital’s medical superintendent, Pradhan Poudel, says that due to the non-payment from the Insurance Board, it is becoming difficult to pay the salaries of the hospital staff and that if Rs 250 million is paid immediately for the operation of the hospital, it will be easier to conduct other economic activities.
He said, ‘In such a situation, it is difficult to get medicines in the pharmacy and conduct necessary tests in the laboratory. Currently, more than 1,500 patients are receiving treatment through health insurance in the hospital daily. More than 70 percent of the patients coming to the hospital are such patients, but the hospital has been difficult to operate due to non-payment.’
According to Liladhar Poudel, the hospital’s insurance program coordinator, although Rs 370 million was paid in the last fiscal year, the current fiscal year has not been paid yet. Informing that services were provided to insured patients with the money of the Hospital Development Committee, he said that if the situation continues, the hospital will be pushed into financial crisis.
The hospital has been providing health insurance treatment services worth more than Rs 60 million per month. Bharatpur Hospital is considered the best and model in health insurance in the country. Employees from various hospitals in the country come here to understand the health insurance claim process. Poudel said that those who come in this way are sent after receiving further training on insurance claim payment.
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