Soon, HBI hospitals to Get Re-Empanelled with GIPSA

Bringing fresh hope to lakhs of people in Pune, who hold insurance policies of public sector companies, the long tussle between the General Insurance Public Sector Association (GIPSA) and a section of city-based hospitals, may be nearing the finishing line. Representatives of as many as 175 hospitals — all members of the Hospital Board of India’s (HBI) Pune chapter (a branch of the Indian Medical Association or IMA) — have met and decided to get empaneled with the body of public sector insurance companies. HBI recently made a package list along with rates to be submitted to the said insurance companies for approval, and its officials said that since the same package has already been approved by private insurance companies, public sector ones will be sure to give their nod as well. Hospitals under HBI Pune range from daycare centers to 200-bed institutes. In 2017, all left from the panels of public sector insurance companies, due to which a huge number of retail policy holders were not able to avail of cashless treatment facilities at these hospitals. Despite paying policy installments for years, these patients had to get treated at corporate hospitals, which was heavy on their pockets.

These retail policy holders are linked with the New India Assurance Company, United India Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and National Insurance Company, all of which come under the GIPSA banner. In fact, HBI-affiliated hospitals had also revoked the cashless facility for corporate customers of GIPSA insurance companies. The discontent fomented a few years prior to this, when GIPSA came out with an initiative called Preferred Providers Network (PPN), in which the empanelment was restricted to a certain number of limited hospitals based on area. Due to this, patients had to visit only a specific hospital in a particular area, if they want to avail of the benefits of a GIPSA insurance policy. In this way, policy holders were deprived of deciding which hospital and doctor they wished to get treatment from.

HBI, Pune, chairman Dr Sanjay Patil said, “A meeting has been scheduled with GIPSA for next week, in which two prime points will be discussed. HBI hospitals here are looking forward to rates similar to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai hospitals. HBI also demands that there be no trafficking of insurance and no restriction for hospital empanelment based on area.” He added, “Earlier as well, we were empaneled with some GIPSA companies. But later, when PPN came about, our hospitals slowly left the panel. After a thorough study, we have made 40 new packages that will be submitted to GIPSA. The same have been recently submitted to the private insurance companies, who have approved of them. We have also developed a calculator to measure insurance for a medical procedure that is out of the prescribed packages.” – Pune Mirror