Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The Health Insurance Board (HIB) has started the process to pay an additional Rs 911.89 million to 202 various service providing hospitals across the country.

The Ministry of Health and Food and Hygiene has been facilitating the release of the amount by prioritizing the payment of remaining liabilities under the Health Insurance and Indigent Citizen Drug Treatment Program.

Joint Spokesperson at the Ministry, Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, said that before this, Rs 1.03 billion 24.77 billion was paid to the health insurance claims in the first week of May. According to him, Rs 321.37 million was released on June 4 for medical treatment expenses of poor citizens and an additional Rs 273.77 million was paid on June 7 of the same month.

It is estimated that Rs 7 billion will be required to pay the insurance claims till November last year and Rs 14.5 billion from December to June.

According to Adhikari, the government has expedited the necessary resource management and payment process, giving high priority to the insurance claims due for the past years and the payment of medical treatment to the poor citizens.