Finance Dept. clears ₹23 crore dues for paediatric surgeries under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram

Finance Dept. approves ₹23 crore for paediatric surgeries, easing financial strain on private hospitals under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram.

Bringing relief to small and medium private hospitals, the State Finance Department has approved the release of over ₹23 crore in dues pending since 2017 for paediatric surgeries carried out under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

The Department last week cleared a Cabinet note proposing that the pending payments be released using available grants with the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), the nodal agency implementing the State’s health schemes. The proposal now awaits Cabinet approval.

This issue of prolonged delay in clearing payments to private hospitals that had performed surgeries for children under the programme had been reported by The Hindu in September last year.

Demanding reimbursement of the dues, private hospitals had earlier warned that they would suspend paediatric surgeries under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme if the payments were not cleared. Several hospitals had also said they were considering legal action, and some have even approached the court.

The dispute dates back to 2016, when the State introduced additional treatment codes under RBSK without prior approval from the Centre. Hospital authorities said they carried out surgeries in good faith based on the government’s published codes between 2016 and 2018, but subsequent audits flagged that the procedures lacked central clearance, leaving the claims pending.

Officials attributed the delay to a technical issue in the procedure listing on the SAST portal, which stalled the processing of claims.