Hyderabad, July 17 (IANS). The Telangana government on Friday launched a new employee health scheme for government employees, pensioners and their dependent families. Under this scheme, beneficiaries will get the facility of cashless treatment in empaneled private hospitals across the state.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha launched the scheme at a program organized at the state secretariat. During this, health cards were distributed to the employees and NEHS portal was also launched.
According to the government, around 8 lakh government employees and pensioners, as well as their 29.80 lakh dependent family members, will benefit from the scheme. That means in total about 37.80 lakh people will get the benefit of this scheme.
Beneficiaries will be able to avail cashless admission and treatment facilities in 886 empaneled private hospitals of the state. 1,816 types of treatments and surgeries are covered under the scheme, the rates of which have been fixed as per the Central Government Health Scheme.
Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that for effective and transparent operation of the scheme, the government has constituted a special trust, in which government officials and representatives of employee organizations have been given equal participation.
He said that the State Government has started this scheme with the aim of providing better health security to the employees and their families and saving them from financial crisis due to treatment expenses.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the government observed that during serious illness, many employees were forced to take loans for treatment and later faced difficulties in repaying them. The new health scheme aims to address this problem by providing comprehensive cashless medical care to employees and their families.
He said that the Cabinet sub-committee formed under the leadership of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has prepared this scheme after extensive deliberations on the problems of the employees. The chairman of this committee was the Deputy Chief Minister himself, while ministers Duddila Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar and Seethakka were its members.
Bhatti Vikramark accused the previous BRS government of neglecting the employees, saying the previous government had left without paying bills worth nearly Rs 10,000 crore.
He said that the present government is paying the pending bills by releasing about Rs 2,000 crore every month. He said that he himself reviews it every 15 days so that no payment remains pending.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the priority of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is education and health sectors. In the same direction, the limit of free treatment under Rajiv Aarogyasri Scheme has been increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, due to which 1.06 crore eligible families of the state are getting the facility of free treatment in corporate hospitals.
He appealed to the government employees to work with new energy and dedication and play an active role in extending the benefits of the government’s public welfare schemes like quality rice to the poor, free bus travel for women, free electricity to farmers and 200 units of free electricity to domestic consumers.
–IANS
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