These issues will be resolved for the benefit of ECHS beneficiaries

Indian Military Veterans

These issues will be resolved for the benefit of ECHS beneficiaries

The meeting was held at C O ECHS office to review the matters discussed earlier with Director RC 1. The meeting was attended by the following stakeholders:

The following officials attended on behalf of the ECHS organisation:

Col RK Singh, Director RC 1 ECHS

Lt col Reeti Sisodiya Joint Director HS

Exservicemen Side

Maj Gen Bhanu Pande, VSM

Maj Gen PS Narwal, VSM

Maj Gen Ravinder Singh,VSM

Brig Inder Diwan

Gp Capt PK Agnihotri

Wg Cdr RS Pandey

Flt Lt SS Yadav, VSM

HFO KP Tiwari 

The meeting was opened by Col RK Singh Director RC 1 by welcoming all the members in a very warm atmosphere.

The gist of decisions on points discussed are appended below for brief inputs to ESM 

1. Statement on the hospital website that they will evaluate the facilities installed in the hospital. The same will be done region/state wise on CO ECHS website to facilitate selection of hospital for specific treatment under MoU.

2. Director RC 1 observed that hospital bill payment system of NCR hospitals was brought under control within one month from the date of acceptance by CO ECHS despite expected increase of few percentage points in number of beneficiaries, hospitals and funds. Similar measures are recommended for PCs across India.

3. Hospitals are encouraged to display bed availability. Issue a written certificate as Bed N/A on the date and time to be submitted to ESM.

4. Provide day treatment/stabilization of the patient if ESM is not required or cannot admit due to non-availability of beds.

ESM does not charge any fee for temporary day treatment. These should be charged to ECHS and there should be no clause demanding refund of incorrectly calculated daily treatment amount only after reimbursement by ECHS.

In case of Bed N/A, the hospital should inform this in writing to ESM as per the format provided by ECHS for ECHS information. ESMs should receive prescriptions to avoid double checking of procedures already performed. Penalty clause should be imposed in future memorandums in case hospitals issue false bed vacancy certificates and it is evident from hospital records.

Hospitals should provide complete details of condition along with tests/procedures etc. performed and results/reports submitted at the time of arrival of ECHS patients at emergency department before requesting ESM/family to get doctor's opinion and shift to alternative treatment hospital where staff specialists go.

Liaison should be established with co-located hospitals to facilitate right decision especially in emergency situations (so that ESMs can shift to their preferred ECHS facility as per their own arrangements).

5. Expand list of nationally reputed hospitals and state hospitals and update information on environmental awareness website.

6. Hospital/CO ECHS website should display names of personal contacts at appropriate places instead of billing locations to facilitate admission/treatment and provision of beds etc. of ECHS beneficiaries as per ESM requirements and requirements in case of emergency. 7. The community may be informed about the extension of the deadline for linking of ECHS card with Adhar card (duly linked with registered mobile number), which was postponed due to technical reasons in ECHS.

8. Providing grievances and suggestions on the hospital website as well as providing grievances and suggestions to ECHS for consideration of relevant MoU clauses of the concerned hospitals.

9. Increase the number of certified local pharmacists by 4-5, especially in places with high density of ESM clusters such as Dwarka.

10. Approval of dental implants based on medical recommendation from experts in R n R or similar certified facilities.

11. Additional procurement and approval of household electrical appliances under paragraph 52g of ECHS S O P, 2018. 12. Incorporate additional tests with recommendations and sanctions where necessary as part of annual medical check-up.

13. Narrow range of specialists for ESMs leads to issues of different rates and fees for specialists even within the same hospital. This discrimination must be eliminated.

4. Provide medical facilities and courtesy at par with other private counterparts despite paying higher rates compared to ESMs.

15. As long as the approved facilities are cashless, ESMs should not be forced to pay large amounts before admission/treatment. 16. Provide one dialyzer per dialysis instead of one dialyzer currently approved for 10 dialysis procedures.

17. Incorporate the latest policy letters on various facilities/topics with page wise indexing as per scope and arrangement at the end of the revised S O P on the ECHS website. As the last policy letters are more than 6 years old and changes need to be incorporated. The older ones will be removed from the website. The paragraphs in the S O P are indexed page wise as per content to make it easier to find the specific provisions referred to by the authorities and ESMs.

18. It was emphasised that the effectiveness of the system in the listed facilities needs to be improved by continuous monitoring of the hospitals through surprise visits of Dir/Dy Directors OiC PC, RC, CO ECHS and necessary improvements in subsequent MoUs. Provisions need to be put in place for the convenience of ESM.