New plan for Sehat card income

Officials say initiative will make govt hospitals financially independent

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab government has introduced a new plan to utilise the income earned through Sehat Sahulat Cards in all government hospitals across the province, including Rawalpindi.

Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Afzal approved the plan and a notification has been issued to all government hospitals.

The officials believe that this new plan will help make all government hospitals financially independent. Under the plan, 20 per cent of the revenue earned from the Sehat Sahulat Card is to be spent on free medicines and on various diagnostic tests during treatment.

The formula applied in government hospitals under the Sehat Sahulat Card has been dubbed 'Interim Shared Distribution Formula' (ISDF). According to the notification, the new plan will not be applicable to private panel hospitals.

However, the implementation of the new formula has caused concern among the management of government hospitals in Punjab, questioning who will be responsible for refunding the monies spent on various matters before this order. The management of hospitals are of the view that the new formula won’t work.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the 7th meeting of the Standing Committee on Universal Health Insurance was held on April 1, 2022 under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Punjab and the committee had approved the meeting minutes on April 4, which has issued a formal notification.

As per the notification, all the government hospitals under the administrative control of the primary and secondary health departments will provide 20 per cent of the revenue in the context of Sehat Sahulat Cards to provide free medicines to the patients and various laboratory tests for diagnosing patients undergoing treatment.

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According to sources, the notification further said that the remaining 80 per cent of the revenue earned through Sehat Sahulat card in government hospitals has been divided into three parts. For instance, 10 per cent to 15 per cent will be spent on hospital maintenance, repairing, equipment procurement and other infrastructure issues while 15 per cent will be spent on facilities for HR of the Government Hospital, the remaining amount will be deposited in the Insurance Fund as Government Share.

On the other hand, an attempt was made to take a stand by the management of various government hospitals in Rawalpindi against the initiative. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new plan applied to the health facility card was impractical.

They were of the view that hospitals do not have a system in which the money received in the form of insurance claims can be divided into different parts. However, further clarification is required in the new government notification. It should be mentioned that before this, thousands of patients have been treated in government hospitals on Sehat Sahulat card whose insurance claim is still in process. If this formula is applied to them then the hospitals will default instead of becoming independent. The government should have the same policy on the panel and non-panel hospitals to make this programme a success so that patients could get maximum benefits.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2022..