The scam going on in Jalandhar under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme came to the notice of the Vigilance Bureau around 18 months back and they had lodged an FIR against the top 9 hospitals of the city. It has been 18 months, but no action has been taken against the culprits. The question that arises is whether these culprits will be put behind the bars or will this case also get closed without reaching any conclusion as the hospitals involved in this scam are run by influential people.
According to the sources of the Vigilance Bureau, Health Department is responsible for the delay in the judgment of the case.
Earlier also a case came under the Vigilance Bureau where a Vice Chancellor of a renowned university was involved but later on, he was given a clean chit.
Will history repeat itself? Will the hospitals involved in the scam be given a clean chit due to the medical lobbying?
What is Jalandhar Ayushman Bharat Scam?
Then (when Jalandhar's Ayushman Bharat scam to the fore) DGP-cum-Chief Director Vigilance Bureau B K Uppal said, “based on inputs received from credible sources, it has come to light that several well-known private hospitals based in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and Kapurthala districts have prepared hefty fake bills in the names of smart card holders for their treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme and took insurance claims from the insurance firm.”
IFFKO TOKIO Insurance Company provides the claim to the hospitals for treating people under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme and the hospitals are providing them with fake bills to earn hefty amounts of profits.
According to the sources, Vigilance Bureau got the information that a scam is going on under this scheme and when an investigation was carried out in this regard, they got the know that the hospitals are treating only one patient under the smart card, but is mentioning that they have treated four more. This means that they were receiving claims for one genuine and 4 fake patients.
The Vigilance Bureau prepared a list of more than 200 such cases and initiated a Vigilance Enquiry (VE) against the hospitals involved in the scam. To carry out further investigation Vigilance Bureau requested the government to assist the health department. Vigilance Bureau was later told by the health department to provide them with all the cases and they will get them verified.
Now, it has been more than a year that the bureau has received no follow-up or further information regarding the outcome of the expert opinion of the health department.
The scheme has gone on hold in Punjab due to the long outstanding dues which the Punjab government has not cleared. After this, all the private and government hospitals have denied providing treatment to the patients under this scheme hailing from Punjab. There is a total of 60% of people in Punjab availing the benefits of this scheme.