TIMS Act set to make healthcare affordable in Telangana

Through the Act, the health department will operate the super-specialty hospitals, which are coming up at Alwal, Sanathnagar and LB Nagar with a cost of Rs 2,679 crore, in a hybrid model.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) Health, Medical and Family Welfare, Act 2022, which recently received cabinet approval, is a unique initiative that is set to be implemented in Government-run healthcare services.

Through the Act, the health department will operate the super-specialty hospitals, which are coming up at Alwal, Sanathnagar and LB Nagar with a cost of Rs 2,679 crore, in a hybrid model.

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The initiative entails adopting the existing healthcare delivery mechanisms of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and government-run general hospitals like Osmania General Hospital (OGH) and Gandhi Hospital. The NIMS is a quasi-government health care facility wherein, unlike government general hospitals like OGH, the health care services are charged from patients.

According to the Act, the health department will run 50 per cent of the TIMS hospital beds based on the model of government hospitals, which is free healthcare while the rest will be based on the charges that is being implemented at NIMS.

Senior health officials familiar with details pointed out that the healthcare tariffs at NIMS were far less than corporate hospitals in Hyderabad. In fact, almost all the government-run insurance schemes including CGHS are based on NIMS tariffs, they pointed out.

The unique hybrid model is expected to offset some percentage of health costs, which would be incurred by providing free general consultation and treatment to poor patients across all the TIMS superspecialty hospitals.

Given the fact that almost all the State governments in the country are struggling to keep healthcare affordable in the face of escalating costs, disease burden and ageing population, such unique hybrid models that seek to combine government subsidies and patient payment models, could well be the way forward for the government-run health care services across the country.

TIMS budget: Project cost
TIMS LB Nagar: Rs. 900 crore

TIMS Sanathnagar: Rs 882 crore
TIMS Alwal, Medchal: Rs 897 crore