Jhapa. The Sahara Nepal Savings and Credit Co-operative Society of Jhapa has been supporting the treatment of the members through a new concept like the health insurance program.

In 2072 BS, the organization had implemented the ‘Jeevan Booldan’ program to ensure that members do not face difficulty in treatment when they are ill. Members of cooperatives can become members of the ‘Jeevan Bodan’ program after paying Rs 3,475 annually.

Those who become such members can get medical services worth millions of rupees once a year from the hospital designated by the organization when they are sick. According to the organization, some members get treatment up to Rs 1 million depending on the condition of the disease.

Members benefit from the ‘Jeevan Booldan’ program as Sahara bears up to 90 percent of the total cost of surgery and medicines in case of high-cost complex disease, accident and emergency treatment.

According to Dinesh Bahadur Niraula, deputy director of Sahara Nepal Savings and Credit Co-operative Society, 17,737 members have received medical services worth Rs 419.7 million through ‘Jeevan Bardan’ in a decade.

In the current fiscal year 2081/82 BS, more than 1,400 members have availed medical treatment worth about Rs 70 million, he said. It is said that the exact account is yet to come as the bills of some of those who have taken the service in the last month are being collected.

The organization has signed agreements with more than 50 hospitals of Mofussil from the well-equipped hospitals of the capital Kathmandu for the treatment. The organization has given the facility to the members that the patients can choose the hospital themselves and get treatment.

“If a patient of a complex disease or has to undergo surgery, the member can get treatment at the hospital of his choice,” he said, giving information about the process of receiving the service. The hospital provides all the treatment without taking any bail. ’

The organization pays 90 percent of the cost of surgery and 80 percent of the cost of treatment to the hospital. The members of the cooperative have been feeling great relief in health treatment as most of the expenses from the day of admission to the hospital till the time of discharge are borne by the organization itself.

After being discharged from the hospital, the organization sends nurses to the patients who have undergone surgery while staying at home. According to the organization, it has been paying up to 50 percent of the medicine cost to the members suffering from 10 chronic diseases including heart kidney, sugar, pressure, thyroid, asthma and psoriasis.

Chandra Prasad Rijal of Kankai Municipality-3 said he received treatment worth Rs 250,000 from Birtamode’s B&C Hospital. Birtamod Municipality Ward No. 2 is a member of the organization’s Life Booldan Program. Dhundiraj Mishra of Ward No. 2 said he had received Rs 400,000 a year ago when he underwent a surgery at The Medicity Hospital in Kathmandu.

Sahara Nepal Savings and Credit Co-operative Society currently has 191,721 members with a share capital of Rs 1.69 billion. There are 81 service centers operating in six districts including Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Ilam, Panchthar and Udayapur.