By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In a fresh case of gross negligence by the concerned authorities in charge of the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) a patient was denied full reimbursement after she underwent treatment at Nazareth Hospital here.
Latika Sharma, who was admitted to Nazareth Hospital on May 27 and discharged two days later, was denied full reimbursement of her medical bill by ICICI Lombard, the insurance company in charge of the MHIS, despite the patient being a beneficiary of the scheme and a recipient of the smart card issued by the Government.
According to Sharma, she was asked by the hospital authorities to pay Rs 3004 to clear hospital bills and she was not allowed to leave the hospital until the amount was paid despite the fact that she had submitted her MHIS card to the hospital authority.
“It was only later that I came to know that the actual hospital bill was Rs 4004 and only Rs 1000 was reimbursed by the insurance company,” Sharma said.
Sharma and her husband, residents of Bishnupur locality of the city, have termed the much-hyped scheme which aims at providing free health services upto the upper limit of Rs 1.60 lakh per household having five members, had turned out to be a farce.
“We were not prepared to meet the expenses as we had hoped that free treatment will be provided under the scheme, but when we were asked to pay the bills, we had no money in hand and had to seek help from a friend,” the patient’s husband, S Sharma, said.
Stating that the staff of the insurance company who were present at the hospital the day his wife was discharged had failed to provide a concrete explanation on the matter, Sharma said, “When we sought for an explanation on the matter, all they mentioned were some technical stuffs, alien to common people like us.”
Ruing the inability of the company and the health department to provide a clear cut explanation, Sharma said, “We are confused as to whether possession of the MHIS card can really relieve us from payment of hospital bills or is it just a showpiece to be carried in our pockets.”
“After the incident, we really don’t know the benefits of having this card,” Sharma said, while calling upon the government to sort out these discrepancies and to prevent such things from happening to other beneficiaries as well.
Sharma also hoped that the department concerned would clarify on the matter and explain to the public the advantages of this scheme.
Recently, another patient was held back at Nazareth hospital by the authorities as he could not clear the hospital bill and was released only after full payment was made by the insurance company, few days after the matter was reported in a section of the press.