PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has released Rs3 billion to the State Life Insurance Corporation, promising a similar payment next week to ensure the continued free treatment of the people under the Sehat Card Plus programme.

The SLIC, which is executing the free health initiative in the province, suspended services at empanelled hospitals on Sept 7 with the liabilities totalling Rs18 billion, and sought Rs6 billion from the government to be able to continue catering to people.

However, it restored services under the programme the next day after the government promised the payment of the required amount.

The decision to release Rs3 billion funds was made in a meeting chaired by adviser to the chief minister on finance Muzzammil Aslam on Tuesday. The money was later released, with the promise of a similar payment to the SLIC next week, according to officials.

The finance adviser said the government would continue funding the programme to ensure people could have free access to healthcare.

SCP CEO Dr Mohammad Riaz Tanoli informed the meeting through a presentation that the programme was a complete success as the number of beneficiaries continued to rise every month.

He said the province had around 120 hospitals designated for the health insurance programme in the province in addition to those empanelled in other provinces, where people with computerised national identity cards fromKhyber Pakhtunkhwawere receiving services free of charge.

Dr Tanoli said that around 10.5 million families from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had got themselves registered for the cashless healthcare.

He said the services were offered to hospitalisedpatients only.

“Beneficiaries of this programme can check their eligibility by visiting Nadra’s website or sending SMS to mobile number 8500,” he said.

The CEO said services were provided to patients through a network of public and private hospitals selected through a comprehensive assessment process by technical experts.

He said the selection and removal of hospitals from the SCP list was an ongoing process, with those not fulfilling the criteria of the programme being delisted.

“There is a criterion under which all empanelled hospitals are required to offer quality healthcare services to the people. Our system has a complaint management system under which people can register complaints about empanelled hospitals for early yet effective action,” he said.

Dr Tanoli said the government had signed agreements with empanelled hospitals for the treatment of different diseases, while the monthly expenditure of the programme totalled around Rs2.5 billion.

He said that a recent third party evaluation showed that 97pc of the recipients were satisfied with the treatment they got on SCP.

The CEOsaid for the current year, the government allocated Rs34 billion, including Rs28 billion for settled districts and Rs6 billion for merged tribal districts.

Officials in the health department said the programme had suffered during the caretaker government as it did not release funds citing financial crisis as the reason.

They said the SLIC stopped the programme as the unpaid amount surged to Rs24 billion with no payments in sight.

The officials, however, said after assuming power in the province for a third time, the PTI restored the programme.

They said the ruling PTI, which pioneered the programme, had so far released Rs16 billion to the insurance company, which wanted the government to pay it Rs3 billion every month.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024