New rules for AYUSH hospitals

New norms have been introduced for the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy sectors) regarding the conditions of medical reimbursement. The IRDAI or Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India issued guidelines earlier in November. As a consequence, the reimbursement at these hospitals for inpatient treatment is subject to certification from NABH or the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals and Healthcare providers. Only NABH certified hospitals will provide medical reimbursements. These certification can either be pre-entry level or higher entry level certificates. The hospitals can also make use of certification from National Quality Assurance Standards under the National Health System Resource Centre. The AYUSH hospitals are required to comply within a year. The move is expected to affect the smaller hospitals as very few of them are certified under NABH. However, government hospitals under the KASH system of Kerala will not be affected as the Kerala Accreditation Standards for Hospitals system grades government hospitals (not the private hospitals) and provides for free services.