Indore hospital booted from Aysuhman Bharat scheme over irregularities

A private medical college and hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has been suspended from the Ayushman Bharat scheme over a host of irregularities, including unnecessarily admitting patients to the ICU and inflating the number of patients admitted, an official release said.

“Index Medical College, Hospital and Research Center Indore has been suspended from the scheme for not complying with the MoU (memorandum of understanding) made in the Ayushman Scheme and committing irregularities to get undue benefits of the scheme,” said the suspension order issued by Ayushman Bharat Niramayam, Madhya Pradesh, on Tuesday. As a result of the action, the hospital will no longer be able to provide treatment under the scheme.

Under Ayushman Bharat, a flagship health scheme of the Centre, the government provides health security cover to 10 crore families or 50 crore people across the country. Hundreds of private hospitals are empanelled under it to provide treatment to citizens and they claim the expenses from the government. The audit team of the Madhya Pradesh health authority had inspected Index hospital in the first week of this month and found serious lapses. Many mistakes were made to get unfair benefits under the scheme, said the release.

The hospital had claimed to have admitted 500 patients while the actual number was only 76, said the release. No satisfactory reply was given by the hospital administration regarding the remaining patients, it said. The audit team found patients, who did not require admission and intensive care, unnecessarily admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), said the release. It was also found that patients remained admitted for a longer period of time despite there being no need for it.

While patients with common illnesses were found to be admitted, the hospital also treated several other patients on one patient’s card to take undue financial advantage of the scheme, the official release said. Patients were told to pay for medical consumables and tests that were to be mandatorily made available free of cost in the hospital, said the release. The hospital’s reply to a notice over the alleged irregularities was not satisfactory and it did not submit any “requisite record” to the audit team of the state health authority, the release said. Apart from not cooperating with the audit team, a mob also was gathered in front of the auditors to create an unpleasant atmosphere, the release added.