Phase III of MHIS

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, MAR 9: The implementation of the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) Phase-III is likely to kick off next month.

Making the announcement in the Assembly, health minister Roshan Warjri said, “We are hopeful that by next month we will be able to launch the Phase-III of the scheme in the state.”

Warjri informed that the Approval Monitoring Committee of the Government of India is also likely to hold its sitting today in relation with the approval of the scheme.

The MHIS, although a scheme of the state government, receives 90 per cent of the funds from the central government, the minister said.

On the delay in the implementation of MHIS Phase-III, she said this was due to the tendering process, which was called at least four times. She said that the guidelines had to be restructured too.

Opposition members lambasted the state government for the tardy manner in implementing the health insurance scheme. According to them, the scheme has benefitted the people of the state.

UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh pointed out that one of the flaws of the scheme was that the insurance companies have left a huge amount of pending arrears which was not paid to hospitals, and thereby, affecting the patients.

In her reply, Warjri said steps have been taken by penalising such insurance companies for delay in payment to hospitals, which have been empanelled under MHIS.

Opposition leader Donkupar Roy pointed out that people were suffering because of the delay in implementing the scheme after the phase-II had expired since October last year.

When Roy sought a clarification whether medical expenses spent by patients from October 2016 till date would be covered under the new phase, the minister replied in the negative.

Earlier, chief minister Mukul Sangma said that the scheme was on a convergence mode and is linked to the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RBSY).

“While taking advantage of the RBSY, the government structured the programme on a convergence mode by topping up which can be extended to families which are not covered since RBSY is specific only to BPL families,” he said.

Under the MHIS II, he said the state government had provided an additional coverage of 2 lakh and it has been subsequently increased to 2.8 lakh which include critical care and cancer.