Bhubaneswar: Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), the unique health programme of the Odisha government, scribed record growth in terms of the number of partner hospitals and the claims raised by them against the treatment of individual patients. The matter came to the fore during a recent internal review meeting chaired by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of State Health Assurance Society (SHAS) D Brundha wherein Additional Secretary-cum-Joint CEO Bubhananda Mohapatra presented the updates.
Matters relating to judicious disposal of claims raised by empanelled hospitals, quick redressal of the grievances, and performance of Swasthy Mitras (SMs) at the ground level among other things figured in the meeting. Reviewing the progress made so far, CEO Brundha directed the nodal officers to regularly review the empanelled hospitals, especially those outside the state for proper facilitation of the treatment of BSKY card holders. She also directed to orientation of the district coordinators for timely disposal of the grievances received through Mo Sarkar and various other sources.
The review showed that 816 private sector super specialty hospitals were brought under the umbrella of BSKY by December 15, 2023, thereby marking a growth rate of 43.40 per cent over the corresponding period of the last calendar year (2022). Besides, around 8,530 government hospitals were striving day and night for realisation of the objective of quality clinical care for all. Out of 816 empanelled private sector hospitals, 160 were from 16 states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. In Odisha, 656 private sector hospitals in different districts partnered with the state government to provide high-quality treatment to the poor.
Concomitantly, the number of claims raised by the empanelled hospitals against the treatment of individual patients also crossed 12.11 lakh by December 15. Given the present popularity of BSKY, the number of claims is expected to cross 13 lakh by the end of December 2023. With that number, BSKY would scribe a record growth of 102 per cent over the last year of 2022.
Corresponding with the growth in the number of people treated in private hospitals from among 96.5 lakh families registered under the scheme, the state government was required to pay bills of more than Rs 2,507.05 crore by December 15. It was expected that the claimed bill amount might cross Rs 2,910 crore by the end of December 2013; thereby recording a growth of 107 per cent over the corresponding period of the last year. Available data showed that in 2022 the total claimed bills against treatment of individual patients were around Rs 1,409.40 crore.
A review of the feedback from people who received treatment under BSKY showed that more than 98 per cent of them, especially the women and the old for whom super specialty treatment in world-class hospitals of urban areas was a dream, mentioned their gratefulness to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the state government for this inclusive healthcare scheme.
