Program was halted due to non-payments of dues by KP govt
PESHAWAR
After assurance of clearing all unpaid amounts, the State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) agreed to restore Sehat Card Plus programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The program was halted by the corporation as a result of non-payment of dues by the provincial government.
However, the services were restored on Saturday after a full day suspension at all public and private hospitals of the province.
The SLIC in a notification said that the Sehat Card Facilities to all hospitals have been restored on the formal request of Advisor to Chief Minister for Health KP and assurance from authorities concerned that the dues will be cleared with due course of time.
“ The Competent Authority re-ensure that the due will be cleared within the due course of time,” said a notification issued by the chairman of SLIC.
The corporation while withdrawing the suspension notification issued directives to health facilities for resuming their services under the program.
The SLIC had suspended its services on Friday and stated that it will discontinue the free health services in the province over the issue of dues.
“All panel hospitals working under the Sehat Card Plus Programme in KP are advised to stop taking new admissions under the Sehat Card Plus Programme, KP w.e.f 22 Aug 2023, till further directives,” SLIC said.
According to a summary issued by the corporation, a copy of which is available with Lead Pakistan, circulated for the information of concerned authorities, including public and private health facilities of the province, that the health desk of the program would only remain operational for processing of pending claims.
“All private panel hospitals are further advised to refer all cases to the public sector hospitals in the absence of Sehat Card Plus Coverage,” it stated.
As per details, all panel hospitals, head of facilitation of Sehat Card, and district medical officers have been informed that currently the service delivery of the Sehat Card is suspended across the province.
The suspension of free treatment on Health Card has caused panic among the people as the majority of the people in KP are unable to afford their treatment in the government and private hospitals on their own expenses.
The KP government has already stated that it was facing serious financial difficulties to meet its expenses.
On August 24, the SLIC, which manages and implements the free health initiative for the government, had resumed the service after suspending it over non-payments of arrears.
As the KP is being run by an interim setup since January 2023, the caretaker government’s commitment to the initiative launched by the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been hit by uncertainty.
Complaints of delayed payments for medical treatments have forced the insurance company time and again to stop treating patients on Sehat Insaf Card, even as authorities insist all empaneled hospitals must continue to accept the health insurance scheme.
The caretaker chief minister Muhammad Azam Khan held several negotiations with the insurance company and concerned authorities tried their level best to streamline the free health services and resolve the issue of resources for the program but it was futile.
The Sehat Card program is a matter of great concern for the caretaker provincial government as it has been facing severe financial crunches and faced with difficulties to run the affairs of the province smoothly without the help of the federal government.
Sehat Card, a flagship program in the health sector of KP, was launched by the PTI government in 2016.
As per statistics, so far, 2.2 million patients have received free health services at a cost of Rs51 billion under the programme.
The registration of families seeking free treatment in public and private hospitals has reached over 9.78 millions across the country.
A total of 1,100 hospitals across the country, including 193 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are providing free treatment services to the residents of the province under the programme.
