Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh, September 19-
Punjab Cabinet Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Thursday strongly refuted claims made by the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (PHANA) Punjab that the state government owes over Rs 600 crore for various treatments availed under the the Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojna and termed the statement as "false and misleading," revealing that the total pending amount for both public and private hospitals is 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.
HM said that since April 1, 2024, the govt has disbursed Rs 101.66CR to private hospitals and Rs 112 crores to public hospitals, totalling Rs 214.30 crores. He explained that technical glitches arose from February 2024 after switching to new software for claim processing launched by NHA, which resulted in slowing down the claim processing.