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Dehradun: 2 private hospitals in US Nagar fined over false Atal Ayushman claims

Dehradun: Two private hospitals of Udham Singh Nagar have been fined and de-empanelled from the Atal Ayushman Yojna for making false claims under the state’s health insurance scheme. While a Kashipur-based hospital has been fined Rs 6.66 lakh, another in Rudrapur was slapped with a penalty of Rs 1.11 lakh. The amount has to be paid within a week.


The Kashipur hospital allegedly made claims worth Rs 2,07,000 for 73 cases, for which it was fined Rs 4,14,000 (double the amount). An additional fine of Rs 2,52,000 for five other frauds was also slapped on the hospital, which added up to Rs 6.66 lakh.

Of the 73 patients, 47 were shown to have been referred from a Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Kelakhera. However, preliminary enquiry revealed that the PHC didn’t have any doctors, only a pharmacist, whose name has appeared in other similar frauds too. Also, 31 patients were shown to have taken the same two treatment packages, which triggered suspicion. While 18 were shown to have been emergency cases, the rest were planned admissions.

Another facility on Kashipur bypass in Rudrapur has been penalised Rs 1,11,600 for staking claims worth Rs 55,800 from the health department for 17 cases. The forgery came to light after irregularities were discovered in the admission and progress documents of each patient. Also, the date and time of discharge were missing from the claim documents.

On digging a little further, the health department found that a doctor who the hospital had listed as its full-time employee was actually working as a “government contract doctor at Jawaharlal Nehru district hospital, Rudrapur”.Dr Abhishek Tripathi, director (administration) of Atal Ayushman Yojna, said, “The hospitals were given due time to present their side but their response was absolutely unsatisfactory.Owing to this, they have been terminated from the empanelled hospitals’ list. They are supposed to submit the penalty money to the department within seven day”

Uttarakhand has served notice to over a dozen hospitals so far under suspicion of staking false claims under the Atal Ayushman scheme. Of these, nine (the maximum) are from Udham Singh Nagar.

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