NTR Vaidya Seva Claims Piling Up As ANMs Delaying Feedback

KURNOOL: Nearly 40,000 claims under the NTR Vaidya Seva scheme are pending across Andhra Pradesh. Officials attribute delayed claims to primarily lack of feedback from Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs).

Under the scheme, ANMs are required to visit patients after discharge, collect feedback and upload it online. Once this is done, the NTR Vaidya Seva Trust approves the claim, enabling payment to hospitals.

A perusal of the trust’s portal reveals that thousands of claims are on hold due to non-submission of ANMs’ feedback. Hospital-wise data indicates the hospital-wise backlog is growing. The pending claims of Kurnool Government General Hospital (GGH) are 761. Likewise, those of King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam are 1,014, Nellore GGH 740, Kadapa RIMS 807, Anantapur GGH 639 and Kakinada GGH 906.

Kurnool GGH superintendent Dr. Venkateswarlu said, “The settlement of claims is handled by the NTR Vaidya Seva Trust. It is true that a large number of claims are pending. It is for the trust to clarify why the claims are pending.”

A doctor from Nandyal Government Hospital said, “In some cases, there is a delay in ANM feedback at the field level. In such situations, the approval of claims may get delayed.”

With the claims mounting, private hospitals have announced that they will stop services under the scheme from Wednesday. This is expected to increase pressure on public healthcare institutions. An orthopaedic doctor from Kadapa RIMS explained, “If private hospitals deny their services to patients, at least 50 per cent of them will turn to government hospitals. This will significantly increase workload on the already stretched government facilities.”

Both hospital administrators and patients have appealed to the authorities to resolve the issue quickly. They point out that prolonged delays in claim approvals will lead to private hospitals denying treatment which, in turn, will delay medicare at the government hospitals.