The Punjab government has told Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) that it would clear all the pending dues of private hospitals till December 2024 incurred under Ayushman Bharat scheme by March 21.
A government counsel told the HC bench of justice Kuldeep Tiwari, on instructions from the state’s principal secretary (finance), that they will clear all the outstanding dues of private hospitals by March 21. However, the government sought liberty from the court to further raise claim regarding contribution to the Central government.
The submissions were made in a plea from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Punjab and others, pending from 2022, seeking the release of the outstanding dues/claims of the hospitals registered under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme for patient care for which 60% of the amount is paid by the Centre and 40% is the state’s share. The plea claimed around Rs 500 crore is pending disbursal of various hospitals.
During these proceedings last year, the Centre had also levelled allegations of “misutilisation of funds” meant for the scheme by Punjab. This had prompted the court to seek details of its spending on advertisements and welfare schemes.
Later in October 2024, Punjab had claimed that only Rs 46 crore is pending to be paid to the hospitals and had further claimed that Centre is yet to release Rs 250 crore as its share under the scheme. It had also asserted that it has neither ‘misutilised’ nor ‘withheld the funds’ .
Both the parties also held a meeting in December. However, outcome of the same is unclear. However, state’s stand before the court suggests that they are yet to arrive at a consensus.
On January 30, as court found that decision regarding December meeting on the issue has not been communicated to the court, it again directed that details of spendings on advertisement and welfare schemes be supplied by February 14. The details have not been supplied, However, now state government has agreed to clear the outstanding bills of hospitals by March 31. Given this, the court has not pressed for details of spendings on advertisement and welfare schemes.
The order on disposal of the petition says as state government gave a deadline to clear outstanding dues, the IMA’s counsel agreed to not press for the petition but has sought liberty from the court to revive it if the state government fails to clear the dues. The liberty has been granted to IMA to take up again even the issue of spending on social welfare schemes, if deadline given on clearing dues is not complied with.
