"Big hospitals are asked to provide free treatment to patients belonging to BPL families," Health Minister Prasanna Acharya told reporters after a meeting with the authorities of private hospitals.
They would have to accommodate 25 per cent poor patients in outdoor and 10 per cent in indoor, he said.
"The state government will soon sign agreements with corporate and private hospitals on this and a specific guideline would be served to all such hospitals," he said.
The guidelines would be applicable to hospitals irrespective of whether they availed government land to set up the hospital or not, Acharya said.
"The hospitals which would violate the terms and conditions would lose their referral status and certain benefits from the state," the minister said.
Those who represented private and corporate hospitals in the meeting said they would comment only after getting the government guidelines.
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The cost of treatment of BPL patients would be covered under Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and the state government's treatment funds, a health department official said.
The BPL patients would get free treatment in such hospitals only if they were referred by government doctors, the official said, adding hospitals were asked not to go for "unnecessary" pathological tests to raise the bill.