Vigilance Bureau unearths scam worth crores under Ayushman Bharat

Punjab Vigilance Bureau has exposed a big scam worth crores of rupees under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat scheme) in which private hospitals have obtained health insurance claims from insurance company named IFFCO TOKIO on the basis of fake bills for treatment of beneficiary patients possessing smart health cards. Contrary to this, the IFFCO TOKIO had rejected hundreds of insurance claims pertaining to government hospitals causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.

Disclosing this on Wednesday, DGP-cum-Chief Director Vigilance Bureau B.K. Uppal said on the basis of inputs received from credible sources, it has came to light that several well known private hospitals based in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts have prepared hefty fake bills on the names of smart card holders for their treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme and took insurance claims from IFFCO TOKIO. “A regular vigilance enquiry have been registered by the bureau to investigate this scam worth crores of rupees in the state”, he added.  Giving details of the preliminary findings he informed that SSP vigilance range Jalandhar Daljinder Singh Dhillon have unearthed this fraud in which several fake medical bills of private hospitals had been cleared by the insurance company but on the contrary reimbursement bills forwarded by government hospitals were rejected.

In this connection, major negligence has been seen at the end of concerned Deputy Medical Commissioners and doctors of state hospitals/primary health centres.

«The major reason for rejecting the insurance claims of government hospitals by the company was to get extraordinary financial benefits. Rs. 52,06,500 (Fifty two lacs six thousand five hundred rupess). As a result, the Punjab government has incurred a total financial loss of to the state exchequer during the last one year from these three aforesaid districts”, said Uppal.