Jharkhand Health dept sheltered Ayushman scam accused: Saryu Roy

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Apr 6: Jamshedpur West MLA Saryu Roy has exposed a new dimension in the alleged Ayushman Bharat scam in Jharkhand, accusing the state’s Health Department of deliberately shielding guilty parties, including government doctors and empanelled private hospitals. According to Roy, despite concrete findings of violations, the department took no action and even suppressed an internal investigation report.

Roy claimed that many government doctors were either found working directly at private hospitals empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat scheme or had treatments falsely shown under their names to make illegal insurance claims. “The Health Department knowingly ignored action against such government doctors and allowed empanelled hospitals to exploit the scheme in their names,” said the MLA.

Dr. Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh, then Executive Director of the Jharkhand State Arogya Society, had written to the Director of Health Services on August 3, 2022 (Letter No. 474), requesting a factual inquiry into this practice. He had highlighted a violation of government directives (No. 866(3) dated July 15, 2016), particularly concerning eye and non-eye specialists working at private hospitals while being employed by the government.

Roy noted that the Society had also reiterated earlier instructions on July 25, 2022 (Letter No. 459), which clearly outlined that a private practitioner could work in only one hospital and as a specialist in no more than four hospitals. Moreover, doctors were permitted to practice privately only after completing duty hours in their government assignments.

The findings of the subsequent inquiry revealed that numerous doctors were privately practicing at Ayushman-empanelled hospitals, often far from their official postings. One doctor posted in Shikaripara was found working in three hospitals in Godda. Another posted in Bokaro was practicing in Ramgarh and Hazaribagh. In some cases, doctors from Bokaro were found associated with up to 12 empanelled hospitals, far exceeding the limit.

Examples also included doctors posted in Hazaribagh working in Ranchi, doctors from Koderma working in Latehar, and a RIMS-based doctor practicing in Khunti. A doctor from Sadar Hospital in Godda was found working across Dumka, Pakur, Sahibganj, and Deoghar. Similarly, doctors from Palamu, Lohardaga, Dhanbad, and Giridih were linked to multiple hospitals outside their districts.

Roy expressed shock that in many instances, up to 4,000 surgeries were shown under a single doctor’s name. “It’s shocking that some doctors had thousands of surgeries attributed to them across multiple hospitals, far from their workplace,” he said.

He alleged that the Ayushman Bharat office had separately submitted the list of these doctors to the state government, but the Health Department buried it along with the Director’s investigation report. “The Health Department deliberately chose not to question these doctors or the hospitals employing them,” Roy asserted.

He further accused private hospitals of fabricating bills and potentially conducting operations on deceased patients — a matter also flagged in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report. “It’s possible that surgeries were shown on dead patients using names of these doctors,” he said.

Roy demanded that the Enforcement Directorate include this aspect of the scam in its ongoing investigation. “The role of top Health Department officials must also be probed since no action has yet been taken against guilty doctors or hospitals,” he said.