Summary:
Dehradun: The state health department has decided to clear bills of Rs 5.5 crore that were outstanding with the empanelled hospitals, who have been giving treatment to 18,000 government employees and pensioners under the U-health card scheme. There was an issue of staff crunch which led to clearance of dues getting delayed. Now, we have provided additional hands and this will speed up the work.” TC Pant, DG (health), said.The dues are as old as six years, starting from 2012. Most of them are disputed cases awaiting clearance, and this has been causing inconvenience to the hospitals. The decision was taken in view of repeated complaints made by the hospitals regarding payment of dues.A source in the health department told TOI that the department has given directions to clear the dues by next week as plans are afoot to merge the state health scheme with the recently-launched Centre’s flagship Ayushman Bharat Yojana.“We have asked our team to clear all the dues at the earliest..