AFVOA Newletters of Year 2003

Page 108 of 170 buy medicines or pay for treatment, requests for re-imbursement will not be entertained. Medicines so bought will be at own cost. (j) In an emergency, an ECHS patient may be rushed directly to the nearest Service hospital or to an empanelled hospital (if nearby). However, if empanelled hospital is not located nearby, or it is inconvenient due to the nature of emergency, the member may proceed to a non-empanelled hospital for treatment. He/she must, in any case, inform the dependant Polyclinic/Station HQs/Regional Centre, of the admission within 48 hours. (k) An ECHS member who has a SMART Card can avail of treatment at an ECHS Polyclinic anywhere in India. He can also go to any empanelled Civil Hospital/Diagnostic Centre, provided he has an authorised Referral slip from an ECHS Polyclinic. (l) Intercity transportation will invariably be at the members’ cost, except where he/she is moved on medical advice. Detailed policy will be issued in due course of time. For movement within town/city limits, ECHS ambulances may be used to convey very sick and immobile patients from an ECHS Polyclinic to the Civil Hospital/Diagnostic Centre at the discretion of OIC Polyclinic or the Polyclinic doctors. (m) Service Hospitals are automatically empanelled under the ECHS. Therefore, free treatment/medicines will be provided to ECHS members/entitled dependants, subject to availability of bed space, treatment facility and qualified doctors. Nominal stoppages will have to be paid in cash, before discharge. (f) First priority for treatment in Service Hospitals is reserved for serving personnel and their authorised dependants. Hence ECHS members may be denied admission in Service Hospitals, if bed space is NOT available. Also, certain types of treatment (Cancer, Heart, hip/knee replacements, Renal etc) are not available in all Service Hospitals – admission may be denied in those hospitals. PART 9 ECHS SMART Card and its utilization 76. To efficiently manage the health needs of an ESM population of approx 20 lakhs, with an average of 5 dependants per member, the ECHS would have to track and cater for a strength of over 1 crore members. This can only be done through an electronic system, for which the SMART Card was found to be the best solution. The main purposes of the SMART Card are:- (a) Identification and prevention of fraud. The card will carry personalized details of the pensioner and eligible dependants. The information shall be in the form of digitized, photos and fingerprints. (b) Medical History Details. Details of medical history will be carried on the card so that, in the event of emergency, the data is available. For example, the card will indicate if patient is Diabetic or Asthmatic, or allergic to a particular drug. This will prevent contra medication. (c) Medical Expenditure. Amount of expenditure incurred on each member/dependant, details of reference, hospitalisation and such like details, will be available for use by ECHS management. 77. It had been planned to commence issue of Cards from September 2003 onwards. However, that shall NOT be possible, since the project is enormous, and it has not been possible to short list a suitable vendor as on 31 August. It may take another few months for cards to commence issue to members. We do not wish to hurry matters in view of complexity of the task, it being a prestigious project being undertaken for the first time in the country. Interim Arrangements in lieu of SMART Card 78. In the interim, till such time issue of cards commences, a pensioner who has paid