Kalon Choekyong Wangchuk, Department of Health, CTA today inaugurated a three-day Awareness and Enrollment Workshop on the Tibetan Medicare System (TMS), a social healthcare programme of the Department of Health that seeks to improve public health and well-being of the Tibetan community-in-exile through access to “quality secondary and tertiary healthcare.”

Thirty-three representatives of Tibetan settlements and hospitals including two settlement officers, other Administrators of Tibetan hospitals, nurses and health workers are participating in the workshop being held at the Tibetan Administrative and Training Centre.

Addressing the meeting, Kalon said: “As a result of the leadership of previous Kashags and due to the active deliberations in the Tibetan parliament since 2006, the Tibetan Medicare system was launched to cater a sustainable financing source for the Tibetan families and individuals who require secondary and tertiary medical treatment.

Health Kalon hailed the Tibetan Medicare System as one of the most important and successful projects undertaken by the department in terms of its scope and implementation. From 1 April 2017 to January 2018, a total of 1631 patients have benefited from the Medicare system and the total amount of reimbursement stands at Rs 1,44,70,907. TMS covers 37 Settlements across India and including Organizations.

Kalon Choekyong congratulated the recipient settlements of ‘Tibetan Medicare System Outreach Award’. He encouraged the settlement representatives and health workers to conduct a field research before setting a target for the outreach initiatives.

In his remarks, Kalon discussed the challenges with respect to the Tibetan Medicare System.

“Department of Health has been able to achieve success in terms of laying the foundation for the project. However, we are still tackling with the dearth of awareness in our community particularly with regard to people’s awareness of enrollment, eligibility criteria and claiming process.”

For the project to successfully benefit the community in its full scope, he said the Administration at the central and local level should collaborate in letters and action.

Addressing the recent questions raised in the parliament on prospective gains through the Medicare system, Kalon categorically stated that the medical benefit is heavily dependent on Aids and subsidies. “Moreover it amounts to a significant burden on the Tibetan Administration in terms of human resources,” he added. 

Secretary Tsegyal Chukya Dranyi spoke extensively on the duties and responsibilities of the TMS dealing officers stationed at various Tibetan settlements.

“The foremost duty is to assist the individual claimants in submitting all the requirements including the bills and documents. As a dealing officer, one must pay utmost attention to these details so that the individuals will receive fair reimbursement,” he said.

Secretary discussed in detail the common errors and misinformed practices in conducting the assessment and enrolment of TMS.

TMS Coordinator Mingyur Youdon delivered an introduction and overall achievement of TMS since its inception.

This was followed by a presentation on TMS Scheme, Coverage, Benefit Limits, Exclusions, Technical Terms, Claim Procedures,  Reimbursement Process Flow, Claim Rejections by Officer Dhundup Tashi.

The two resource persons for the programme are Dr Aloke Gupta and Dr Vikas Dagur.

The daylong meeting will review the overall performance of the programme and discuss the progress of TMS enrolment. The meeting will also discuss Communication Strategy for TMS 2019-20, Enrollment Planning-Tentative Plan of Action, Management Information System (MIS), Claim Management and Feedback.

Tibetan Medicare System is a holistic Secondary and Tertiary Health Care Program meant for all Tibetan refugees under the direct cover of Tibetan Voluntary Health Association (TVHA), registered under the Societies Act 1860. TMS is a nonprofit and charitable Health Plan that aims to improve public health and well-being of the Tibetan community-in-exile.  The Department of Health launched TMS on 1st April 2012. It is running on its 7th year now.