Telangana government employees prefer private health insurance

“No corporate hospital provides cashless services based on the health cards issued to us by the state government. We have to go for the reimbursement process once the bills are in hand,” said Erva Venkatesham, chairman, Telangana Employees Confederation (TEC).

He added, “Our health card says that it gives a cover of Rs 2lakh. However, it does not happen while reimbursement. Recently, my wife had to undergo a surgery for a uterus procedure. The total bill was Rs 54,000. However, the government reimbursed only Rs 13,000. It did not give the rest of the money stating the procedure was not covered.”

Another employee said, “Most of us (employees) are going for private insurance as there’s no headache of files passing through several government offices to get a claim. Further, private insurance comes with a income-tax benefit, which even grade four employees come under.”

Meanwhile, Central government employees who used to avail limitless health services from corporate and private hospitals under the Central Government Health Service (CGHS) scheme are ending up paying for treatment.

Mr Nageshwar Rao, general secretary, Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, said, “Most of the big corporate hospitals in the city are putting up boards stating that they will not accept insurance covers under CGHS. They say that the reimbursement is long pending.”

He added, “There are 13 government notified hospitals under CGHS, but there are over 80,000 Central government employees in the state. Availing service in these hospitals becomes difficult. Further, the claim is covered only in Hyderabad. There is need for CGHS cover in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam too as there are many IT, Army and other Central government employees.”