Bengaluru: Government relaxes rules under AB-ARK for registration of hospital to treat regular patients

BENGALURU: The state government on Sunday ordered relaxation of rules under the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka (AB-ARK) scheme facilitating registration of various private hospitals under the scheme to treat patients with regular ailments.
Following the outbreak of coronavirus, the state government had ordered the conversion of all district hospitals as Covid-19 hospital to treat both suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19 and shifted the existing patients at these district hospitals to various other designated private hospitals.
However, considering the influx of patients with regular ailments coming to these hospitals and facilitating treatment to these patients, the government was under intense pressure to create an infrastructure to treat such patients. Hence, it has ordered the relaxation of rules under the scheme.
As per the latest order, a copy of which is with TOI, the patients with regular ailments can directly approach these private hospitals and avail treatment facilities at the same cost that they were offered in government hospitals. The patients can get treatment to 1650 procedures that were covered under AB-ARK scheme.
In case of procedures, that are not covered under the AB-ARK scheme, the hosptials have been directed to bear the cost of treatment from Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust as per the cost fixed under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)