Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The Health Insurance Board (HIB) has revised the rate of ‘convenience bag’ for health treatment.

This is the first time the board has changed the rates of medicines, medical products, health services, surgery and laboratory tests after the implementation of the health insurance scheme.

Board executive director Sakuntala Prajapati said that the Board has directed all service providers to charge medicines, medical materials, health service, surgery and laboratory test fees as per the revised rate of the government.

The new facility will come into effect from May 30.

According to her, the board has changed the benefit pouch on the basis of claims of the last 10 years, data related to service consumption, rates received from various health institutions, medical relevance, cost effectiveness, disease burden and financial sustainability of the health system.

Information Officer Bikesh Malla said that the rates have been determined by looking at the financial condition of the Health Board, the liability and the utilization rate of health services. He said that the rate of the facility bag has been revised to reduce the financial burden on the board.

According to him, the drug will be based on the Department of Drug Administration, the National Public Health Laboratory for laboratory tests and the government hospitals for the health service.

He said that repetitive programs such as the Motherhood Safety Program have been removed in the new convenience bag. “The health care system has been made a convenience pouch by making the health care services low-rate,” he said, “The medicines that are not being used have been removed.” ”

Information Officer Malla said that only 1,170 types of medicines will be available to the insured from the board. Earlier, the Board had been providing 1,289 types of medicines.