By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Even though the State Government has claimed that the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) is meant for all residents of Meghalaya, excluding Central and State Government employees, the ICICI Lombard General Insurance, which is the nodal insurance company, has stressed that the scheme is meant for BPL families only.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, ICICI Lombard General Insurance informed that they have enrolled over 35,000 BPL workers/families under the MHIS in Meghalaya.
Informing that the company reached this milestone in the first week of launch of the scheme which was inaugurated on May 1, 2013, the company said that MHIS is a Government initiated scheme under the aegis of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).
Birendra Mohanty, vice president, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Pvt. Ltd., said: “It is a privilege for us at ICICI Lombard to be associated with the Government of Meghalaya to provide health cover to BPL families. We are committed to participate in such mass health insurance schemes which benefit India’s underprivileged population. This scheme will enable the deserving citizens of Meghalaya to avail essential healthcare facilities.”
Meanwhile, in an encouraging development, beneficiaries of the scheme have already started availing the cashless treatment facility offered under MHIS.
The first patient, who was admitted at Dr. H. Gordon Roberts Hospital, Shillong underwent an operation for ileostomy. An amount of Rs 17,500 was deducted from the bio-metric card provided to the beneficiary.
MHIS entitles the head of the household, spouse and upto three unmarried dependent children in a BPL family to use the cashless smart card based facility for hospitalization, surgical expenses and listed day care treatments in any network hospital.
ICICI Lombard has empanelled 158 hospitals within the State out of which 149 are government hospitals and 9 are private hospitals.
The company has also empanelled 9 hospitals outside Meghalaya for tertiary care including cancer treatment. To avail the benefits of MHIS, the beneficiary BPL family needs to pay Rs 31 towards registration under the scheme to get an insurance cover of upto Rs 1.6 lakh, based on joint contribution of the Central and State governments.