Health cover for TN pensioners up from ₹2L to ₹4L; cash-back allowed
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai:27.07.2018
In a move set to gladden pensioners and family pensioners, the state government has doubled the health assistance provided for approved medical treatment and surgeries from ₹2 lakh to ₹4 lakh for a period of four years up to 2022.
The order issued recently by state finance secretary K Shanmugam said the increase under the New Health Insurance Scheme 2018 would benefit 7.48 lakh people.
Financial assistance for specialised surgeries and treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, organ transplant, open heart surgeries and multiple bone and burn injuries has been enhanced to ₹7.5 lakh. For cataract surgeries, assistance has been capped at 20,000.
The number of hospitals in which pensioners can avail themselves of cashless treatment has also been increased to 913 from 635 in 2014. This includes government hospitals empanelled under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme and pay wards in some of these hospitals. Unlike the previous scheme, the new scheme allows beneficiaries to claim the money spent in non-network hospitals during emergencies or after accidents. The monthly premium, deducted from the monthly pension amount, has been increased from ₹150 to ₹350 per month.
‘Bring transparency to hospital bills, reduce monthly premium’
Despite this, pensioners have welcomed the order against the backdrop of a sharp hike in premiums by private health insurance firms after introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
“We have two requests to the government in the new scheme don’t allow the insurance firm to rope in a third party administrator to bring in more transparency in terms on hospital bills and reduce the monthly premium,” N L Sridharan, president of TN All Dept Govt Pensioners Association, told TOI.
Under the scheme, last revised in 2014, about 2.01 lakh beneficiaries availed themselves of 578 crore in assistance. The contract signed with United India Insurance Limited, Chennai in 2014 to implement the scheme expired in June this year. Tenders were floated in July and UII again bagged the tenders and scheme guidelines were updated.
As per the revised guidelines, benefits were extended for the first time to pensioners coming under local bodies and those working in state public sector undertakings including transport corporations. But the respective government agencies should use their own funds towards this, reads the order, Sons and unmarried/divorced/widowed daughters of pensioners suffering from disability have also been covered under the scheme which would be valid till 2022.
Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com
Chennai:27.07.2018
In a move set to gladden pensioners and family pensioners, the state government has doubled the health assistance provided for approved medical treatment and surgeries from ₹2 lakh to ₹4 lakh for a period of four years up to 2022.
The order issued recently by state finance secretary K Shanmugam said the increase under the New Health Insurance Scheme 2018 would benefit 7.48 lakh people.
Financial assistance for specialised surgeries and treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, organ transplant, open heart surgeries and multiple bone and burn injuries has been enhanced to ₹7.5 lakh. For cataract surgeries, assistance has been capped at 20,000.
The number of hospitals in which pensioners can avail themselves of cashless treatment has also been increased to 913 from 635 in 2014. This includes government hospitals empanelled under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme and pay wards in some of these hospitals. Unlike the previous scheme, the new scheme allows beneficiaries to claim the money spent in non-network hospitals during emergencies or after accidents. The monthly premium, deducted from the monthly pension amount, has been increased from ₹150 to ₹350 per month.
‘Bring transparency to hospital bills, reduce monthly premium’
Despite this, pensioners have welcomed the order against the backdrop of a sharp hike in premiums by private health insurance firms after introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
“We have two requests to the government in the new scheme don’t allow the insurance firm to rope in a third party administrator to bring in more transparency in terms on hospital bills and reduce the monthly premium,” N L Sridharan, president of TN All Dept Govt Pensioners Association, told TOI.
Under the scheme, last revised in 2014, about 2.01 lakh beneficiaries availed themselves of 578 crore in assistance. The contract signed with United India Insurance Limited, Chennai in 2014 to implement the scheme expired in June this year. Tenders were floated in July and UII again bagged the tenders and scheme guidelines were updated.
As per the revised guidelines, benefits were extended for the first time to pensioners coming under local bodies and those working in state public sector undertakings including transport corporations. But the respective government agencies should use their own funds towards this, reads the order, Sons and unmarried/divorced/widowed daughters of pensioners suffering from disability have also been covered under the scheme which would be valid till 2022.
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