Top private hospitals too empanelled for MEDISEP

doctor.
Representative image. Photo: IANS

Thiruvananthapuram: The new Medical Insurance for State Employees and Pensioners (MEDISEP) commenced on July 1. The new health insurance scheme of the Kerala Government facilitates cashless treatment for its current and past employees. As of now, the service is available in 143 government hospitals and 240 empanelled private hospitals.

The government has released the list of empanelled hospitals, including taluk-level ones to medical colleges, and it will be updated in the days to come.

Many frontline private hospitals such as the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, and Malabar Cancer Centre, Thalassery, find a place on the list.

Discussions are underway to include more hospitals. Talks are currently on with Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram.

As many as 12 hospitals from outside Kerala too have been included in the empanelled list. The number of empanelled hospitals in major cities outside Kerala is as follows: Chennai (1), Coimbatore (3), Delhi (1), Kanyakumari (1), Madurai (1), Mangalore (1), Salem (2), Thiruppur (1) and Mumbai (1).

Private hospitals

The number of private hospitals empanelled for the purpose at the district level is as follows: Kasaragod (7), Kannur (11), Kozhikode (26), Wayanad (5), Palakkad (10), Malappuram (34), Thrissur (38), Ernakulam (35), Idukki (6), Kottayam (12), Alappuzha (15), Pathanamthitta (15), Kollam (22) and Thiruvananthapuram (24).

Who all are eligible

It is mandatory for all employees and pensioners to join MEDISEP. Those eligible also include part-time contingent employees, part-time teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff of schools and those who draw pension and family pension in these categories. The officials and pensioners belonging to the civil services category can also join the scheme if interested. The employees, pensioners and family pensioners of the universities and local bodies receiving financial aid from the State Government are also beneficiaries of the scheme.

The personal staff of the chief minister, ministers, Opposition Leader in the Assembly, Chief Whip, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and heads of financial committees, and their dependents will also benefit from the scheme.

The employees and pensioners have to pay Rs 500 as a monthly premium. A Government Order allowing monthly deduction of the amount from salary and pension of employees and pensioners respectively has been issued.

How to avail the facility

All those eligible for the state health insurance need to download the MEDISEP identity (ID) cards can from the portal www.medisep.kerala.gov.in.

State pensioners can log in with MEDISEP ID as user ID and Pension Payment Order (PPO) number as password. For government employees too the MEDISEP ID is the User ID and Permanent Employee Number (PEN) or employees ID number is the password.

The insured may log into the above website for updating, correcting or adding or any details. This should be done within three months. The employees will have to do it through the respective Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO), while the pensioners will have to approach the respective Treasury Officer for the purpose.

Before treatment 

The insured person should produce the downloaded MEDISEP ID cards along with any one of the valid photo ID cards at the hospital they are going to take treatment.

A pensioner will not be able to take the printout of the MEDISEP ID card if the details uploaded are not verified. But if they produce any valid ID cards, they will get the medical treatment from the hospital. But they will have to contact their parent treasury office and verify the data.

But those pensioners who do not have an ID card will have to submit the ID Form to be provided by the Treasury after producing their PPO number. But this is just a one-time relaxation. Steps should be taken to update data on the website. 

The State Government has yet to verify the details of around 7,000 employees and 23,000 pensioners with regard to the implementation of the MEDISEP scheme.  But the Finance Department has issued a circular stating that provisions will be made to take care of their medical needs too.

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