Gurgaon: Peeved over “serious and persistent delays” in payments under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Haryana unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Wednesday wrote to chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, saying that pending dues to empanelled hospitals in the state have crossed Rs 400 crore.The association has urged the CM to intervene directly to streamline the payment pipeline, warning that prolonged uncertainty “could disrupt services” under the flagship health insurance scheme.IMA chairman Ajay Mahajan said, “IMA Haryana has written to the CM to also convey that his officers are misleading him.” The letter was signed by IMA Haryana president Sunila Soni, honorary secretary Yogesh Jindal and Mahajan.IMA Haryana said claims — mandated to be cleared within 15 days — have remained unpaid for months, with some bills dating back to Sept 2025 still pending despite queries having been resolved.“Even after clearing queries, payments are not being made,” the association said, adding that hospitals are facing severe financial strain and uncertainty.The doctors’ body pointed to administrative bottlenecks within Haryana Parivar Pehchan Authority (HPPA), which oversees the scheme’s implementation in the state, noting that although funds were released to the authority in the first week of Nov, actual disbursals have been hit by procedural delays.While some Chiranjeevi-linked payments were reportedly processed till Dec, several intervening cases remain unpaid and SECC-related payments have “barely started”, the letter said.Raising governance concerns, the IMA said there is no full-time chief executive officer appointed at HPPA, leading to what it described as “policy paralysis” in decision-making and approvals.It added that although empanelment and grievance committees — with IMA representation — were approved as early as Jan 2025, they are yet to be operationalised.Regular monthly meetings of these panels have also not been held for the past five months, affecting fresh empanelments and approvals for new specialties under the scheme.Responding to the concerns, a senior health official said, “We acknowledge the difficulties faced by empanelled hospitals due to procedural delays. Several pending claims have already been processed. Other pending claims are under review and disbursements will be expedited to ensure uninterrupted services under Ayushman Bharat.”Under the Ayushman Bharat programme, claim processing and payments are routed through the State Health Agency (SHA), the nodal body responsible for empanelling hospitals, scrutinising medical claims, conducting audits and releasing payments in coordination with the National Health Authority. Hospital representatives, however, argue that while queries are raised and responded to within stipulated timelines, files often get stuck at approval or release stages, resulting in prolonged payment cycles.The issue of delayed payments under Ayushman Bharat is not new in Haryana. In Aug last year, the State Health Agency announced that claim disbursals were being restarted after fresh budgetary support from the state govt, days before around 650 private hospitals were set to withdraw services over long-pending dues.At the time, the agency said a total of Rs 2,900 crore was paid to empanelled hospitals since the scheme’s launch, including over Rs 240 crore in the ongoing financial year, and that claims were being cleared on a first-in-first-out basis.However, private hospitals then maintained that several months of claims remained unpaid and reiterated their threat to halt services if dues were not cleared to their satisfaction.The IMA cautioned that recurring delays and claim rejections were affecting hospital operations, even as the agency maintained that deductions were being made strictly as per National Health Authority guidelines and that grievance redressal mechanisms, including medical audit committees and the CGRMS portal, were in place.
