Health Dept issues advisory on restrictions on unspecified packages on swasthya sathi scheme

Kolkata: A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee cautioned hospitals of strict action including cancellation of their licences in case they deny holders of Swathya Sathi cards from its benefits, the West Bengal Health Department on Tuesday issued an advisory of restrictions on unspecified packages.

The swasthya sathi scheme. launched by Banerjee on December 30, 2016, offers a basic health cover for secondary and tertiary care up to Rs 5 lakh per annum per family.

"For emergency accidental/surgical cases (an) unspecified package may be allowed with a ceiling of medicine and diagnostic charges of Rs 5,000 (maximum) in addition to cost applicable against days of hospitalization as per approved rate for initial treatment," the advisory said.

Despite large number of packages being available, many healthcare providers are treating patients under the category "unspecified package" for medical management cases and for certain surgical cases which may be blocked under specified packages, it said.

According to the advisory, in case a person is not carrying the card the same has to be searched with the Aadhar number of the beneficiary in the Swasthya Sathi web portal.

"In case a person does not have any of the health card, identification of the person/issuance of new card will be facilitated in the hospital itself. Similar arrangements should also have to be made for all PPP diagnostic centres," the advisory said.

Under the scheme, there are at least 1,900 packages, where a family can avail secondary and tertiary care cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh per annum from any of the empanelled hospital.