The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) has said that they will be unable to pay salaries to their staff for September as the State government has not reimbursed the bills of COVID-19 patients referred to private hospitals.
As the number of COVID-19 patients was on the rise, in July the State government made it mandatory to reserve 50% of beds in private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients referred by public health authorities. They also fixed a cap on the treatment charges. The association claims that nearly ₹35 crore towards reimbursement of bills of COVID-19 patients referred by public health authorities is pending.
R. Ravindra, president of PHANA, said private hospitals would be unable to pay the salaries of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers and added that the day-to-day functioning of hospitals would also be affected as they were facing a fund crunch even to pay the suppliers of essential items. He also said that many of their overhead costs had increased during the pandemic.
The association wrote to the Executive Director of the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) last week stating that the financial position of private hospitals continues to be grim. “This needs urgent attention of the trust and release of due payments and faster clearance of the submitted bills will be highly appreciated,” the association stated in the letter.
It said that as 50% of the beds have been reserved for COVID-19 patients to be treated under the government quota, they are not utilising the beds for other patients even though there is demand. They have urged the government to provide a nominal 25% of the cost for unutilised beds so that they can meet the costs.
Sources in the Department of Health and Family Welfare stated that although the government was facing financial constraints, they were clearing bills, but it was taking time because of verification.
