SHILLONG, Jan 4 - The popular Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) would be revived by April this year and the third phase would offer new facilities and also cover a wider population.
Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Paul Lyngdoh said, the technical bids of insurance companies would be opened on January 11 and couple of days later the financial bid would be opened for implementing the scheme.
�By April this year the third phase of MHIS would be implemented and would cover a wider population with new facilities,� he said.
The PAC has sought answers from the Health department about the poor coverage of the scheme although the Government has been insisting that it is a universal scheme. �Just 50 per cent of the population is being covered under this scheme, so it cannot be termed as universal,� Lyngdoh said.
Under the scheme, a household can avail insurance benefit during hospitalisation and claim up to Rs 2 lakh annually. The Government invests a certain portion and adds fund from the Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for Below Poverty Line families for the scheme.
This total fund is the premium paid to the Insurance Company, which in turn results in the payment of the claimed amount handed out by the Insurance Company to the beneficiaries. The scheme was first launched in 2012 and ICICI Lombard was the Insurance Company.
The second phase of the scheme was launched in 2015 and New India Assurance Company Ltd was the Insurance Company. The scheme lapsed in November last year.
However, there have been various complaints that the Insurance Companies have rejected many claims citing those were �invalid, wrong or false.�
�The Insurance companies were taking advantage as there were certain gaps in the contract terms with the Government. PAC has given several suggestions to the Health department to plug these gaps,� Lyngdoh stated.
He said the foremost suggestion of the PAC is to see that the coverage increase from the present 50 per cent and also included diseases that was not covered under the scheme.