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Centre owes ₹249 crore to Punjab under Ayushman Bharat scheme, says minister Dr Balbir Singh
Punjab's health minister clarified that no funds were diverted from the Ayushman Bharat scheme, but ₹249 crore is pending from the Centre.
Punjab health and family welfare minister Dr Balbir Singh on Tuesday said there has been no diversion of the Central government’s funds sanctioned for the Ayushman Bharat Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojana (AB-MMSBY). Rather the Centre owes Punjab ₹249 crore under the scheme, he said.
The minister was addressing a press conference at Punjab Bhawan here to “clear the facts” about the AB-MMSBY. Launched on August 20, 2019, AB-MMSBY (AB-MMSBY) provides an entitlement-based cashless health insurance cover worth ₹5 lakh per family per year. Punjab has covered 44.99 lakh families, empaneling 772 hospitals — 210 public, 556 private and six Central government hospitals.
The budget is shared between the Central and state governments in a 60:40 ratio only for 16.65 lakh socio-economic caste census (SECC) families, while the state bears the budget for the remaining over 28 lakh families.
Out of the approximately ₹585-crore claims raised by the SECC families, the Centre has to pay about ₹350.74 crore against which State Health Agency (SHA) has received only ₹169.34 crore under trust mode.
The health minister said ₹249.81 crore, which includes ₹51.34 crore administrative charges and ₹17.07 crore previous balance, is pending with the Central government. He informed that a team of senior officers from the State Health Agency had a meeting with Union health minister JP Nadda, requesting him to release the instalment of pending payment so that we can pay to private hospitals. “Even, I have personally written to Union health minister JP Nadda for a meeting to request him to release pending payments, but in vain,” he said.
He re-assured that there has been no diversion of Central funds. The minister attributed the delay in payment to hospitals to technical glitches after switching to a new software launched by the National Health Agency (NHA) in February.
Dr Balbir Singh stated the government would authorise private hospitals willing to do ‘seva’ by providing treatment under the scheme. He also offered private hospitals, which are unable to provide treatment under this scheme, to opt out of this scheme. He mentioned that the Punjab government has been mutually cooperating with the private hospitals in every aspect, whether it is regarding providing security or extending the validity of fire safety certificate from one year to three years.
Notably, the Punjab and Haryana high court, on the plea filed by private hospitals, last week attached salaries of the Punjab health secretary for not paying dues to hospitals under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The HC has also directed the finance principal secretary to file an affidavit, detailing expenses incurred by the state on advertisements, renovation of government houses, etc between December 2021 and September 2024. The court will hear the case on October 16.
