The funds allocated to ECHS during last five years and the amount spent year-wise is as follows:-

Some empanelled hospitals have withdrawn their services to ECHS due to delay in payment of their dues on time. Prior to 1st April 2012 processing and payment of all the empanelled hospital bills was done manually through the Station Commanders and Senior Executive Medical Officers (SEMO) of Military Hospitals. Since no additional staff was authorized for the above task, the processing of bills was slow and resulted in delays in payment of the hospitals bills. As a measure towards expediting processing and payment of bills, On-line processing of empanelled hospitals` bills has commenced w.e.f. 1st April 2012 and the same has been implemented in 10 Regional Centres out of 28 Regional Centres so far.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Shri Jitendra Singh in a written reply to Shri Rajeev Chandrasekharin Rajya Sabha today.

Payment delays to empanelled hospitals prompt online bill processing rollout to expedite payments across regional centres Some empanelled hospitals withdrew services due to payment delays caused by manual bill processing through Station Commanders and Senior Executive Medical Officers without additional authorised staff. To expedite payments, on-line processing of empanelled hospital bills commenced w.e.f. 1 April 2012 and has been implemented in 10 of the 28 Regional Centres.