Significant malpractice has been found during the examination of the deaths at Ahmedabad’s Khyati Hospital that were connected to angioplasty procedures. This is especially true with regard to the abuse of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) program. Crime branch sources claim that the hospital took advantage of the PM-JAY program by designating each patient file as a “emergency” case in order to speed approval for medical operations without conducting a complete investigation. The hospital was able to avoid the review procedure that is normally necessary for approvals under the program, which offers low-income families healthcare coverage, by using this “emergency” designation.
The PM-JAY administrators, who were in charge of authorizing therapy under the program, neglected to thoroughly examine the cases. Rather, they mostly used the “emergency” designation to expedite applications. Knowing that the PM-JAY office approved 1,300 to 4,000 emergency claims every day and that these approvals were completed swiftly without thorough verification, hospital officials took advantage of this. This approach might have resulted in dangerous medical practices by enabling the hospital to perform angioplasty procedures and other treatments on patients without the required oversight.
Subsequent enquiries showed that the hospital offered payments to evade examination by new PM-JAY personnel, which sped up procedure approval. This procedure made sure the hospital could keep running without having to wait for the required pre-authorizations for medical procedures. A number of PM-JAY officers have been questioned by the crime branch on suspicion of participating in the fraudulent approval of claims for Khyati Hospital.
Four more sizable hospitals have been added to the investigation in addition to Khyati Hospital, and they are currently being investigated for comparable misconduct involving the PM-JAY program. Eight people have been detained as a result of the ongoing investigation, including Rajshree Patel, the director of Khyati Hospital, who was placed on a 10-day police remand. Three FIRs have also been filed. Kartik Patel, the proprietor of the facility, left the nation soon after the fatalities were announced and is still at large; Dubai is the last known destination.
In order to stop additional abuse, the state administration has responded by putting new standard operating procedures for handling PM-JAY claims into place. Additionally, the government expanded the PM-JAY department’s workforce from 60 to 180 employees. Between September 2021 and October 2024, the hospital treated over 8,500 patients, the majority of them were government plan recipients, and performed medical examinations for over 5,600 people in 69 villages over the previous three years. Of these, 112 patients died.
SOURCE :
TIMES OF INDIA
