Hospitals resuming health insurance to patients after govt releases outstanding payments

Kathmandu / June 28: Hospitals, which have stopped providing health insurance to patients after the government stopped premium payments to them, are going to resume the insurance services after the government released the related payments to them.

Showing lack of financial resources to fund, the government has stopped the payments to the hospitals for the past six and a half months. Following the incidents most of the hospitals have halted their insurance services to the concerned patients, which has invited wide criticism against the government.

According to the Health Insurance Board (HIB), the Maharajganj-based TU Teaching Hospital is going to resume health insurance services from Monday after the hospital received partial payments of the unpaid amount. The HIB has clarified that the board has paid a total of over Rs 2 billion to 364 health institutions across the country, and the teaching hospital is ready to resume its service from June 29 after receiving payment of Rs 40.4 million.

Even though the arrears of billions have been outstanding for a long time, the hospital will resume services with this received amount.

As per the notification issued by the TU Teaching Hospital on Thursday, only OPD services will be resumed for now. For this, the service users will be given health insurance service from June 29 visiting the hospital 7-11 AM and in the afternoon from 1-2:30 PM.

The TU Teaching Hospital had completely closed the insurance program since January 1, stating that the HIB did not submit the inquiry on time. The hospital however has not clarified when it will extend the insurance facilities for patients admitted in the hospital and surgery cases.

The HIB has stated releasing payment for the claim amount for the fiscal years 2024/25 and 2025/26. According to the board, claims worth Rs 27.81 billion have been approved so far.