TANHA Refuses to Join Telangana's New Employee Health Scheme Over Tariff Rates

Private hospitals in Hyderabad under the Telangana Network Hospitals Association (TANHA) have refused to provide healthcare services under the state government's proposed new Employee Health Scheme (EHS). The association announced on Tuesday that the proposed scheme is financially unviable due to its reliance on Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) package rates. This decision deals a major blow to the state's healthcare initiative, as TANHA network hospitals currently provide 70 to 80 percent of the healthcare services under the state-run EHS.

According to TANHA, the proposed package rates under the new Employee Health Care Trust (EHCT) scheme are significantly lower than the existing Aarogyasri and previous EHS rates. The association stated that implementing the scheme with these revised CGHS tariffs would make operations financially unviable for private hospitals.

To address these concerns, TANHA State President Dr. Vaddiraju Rakesh and other network hospital representatives met with EHCT Chief Executive Officer K. Hanumanthu. During the meeting, the association requested that the treatment package rates be revised realistically using a scientific costing methodology rather than blindly adopting the revised CGHS package rates.

In addition to tariff revisions, the private hospitals demanded better representation in administrative decisions. They requested the inclusion of at least 10 representatives from various medical specialties in all key committees. This would allow network hospitals to participate directly in policy decisions and quickly resolve operational issues.

TANHA also urged the state government to establish a robust, transparent, and time-bound grievance redressal mechanism under the new EHS/EHCT framework, pointing out that the lack of such a system was a major shortcoming of the previous scheme. Furthermore, the private hospitals requested the immediate release of all outstanding payments owed to them under the previous EHS before the new system is launched.

The association noted that these issues have been repeatedly brought to the attention of the EHCT CEO, the state government, and senior health officials over the past two months. Despite continuous representations and follow-ups, no concrete action has been taken so far.

TANHA warned that resolving these issues is essential for the long-term sustainability of the new scheme. Without addressing these concerns, the association stated there is a serious risk of repeating past failures, which could compromise the quality and accessibility of healthcare for Telangana government employees, pensioners, and their dependants.