Karunya insurance is not accepted in private medical colleges in kerala for heart diseases like heart attack
In kerala, most of private medical colleges won't accept Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) / RSBY insurance for cardiology cases like heart attack.
I have seen patients presented to casualty with major heart attack having the hope karunya insurance will cover them and the hospital non-acceptance of health card causing the poor patients to pay lakhs of rupees from their own pockets.
On the official State Health Agency (SHA) portal, many private medical colleges still appear as 'empanelled'. Yet, when a patient presents a they are often told "specialty not covered", "the cardiology wing is not part of the current agreement".
The biggest issue is the massive arrears unpaid bills from the government. The government is supposed to reimburse these private hospitals for the treatments they provide. Because these hospitals haven't been paid in months many have stopped accepting health cards for expensive heart procedures like angioplasty, basically leaving patients stranded during emergencies.
The impact on poor families is honestly devastating because when a heart attack hits they’re left with no good options. They either have to travel long distances to government medical colleges that are already overcrowded or they’re forced to pay huge amounts out of their own pockets.
In the hospital I'm working it costs around ₹10,000 per day for an ICU stay and anywhere from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹2.5lakhs for an angioplasty depends on how much stent the patient needs, there is also extra costs for medicines and blood investigations too.