Aasandha Company, which provides the national healthcare insurance scheme of the Maldives, has decided to limit its service only to state owned hospitals and medical centres.

In a sudden statement released by the company late Saturday, Aasandha declared that the universal health scheme “Aasandha” will hereafter be provided only by state hospitals and state owned medical centres only. Adding that the decision was made by the national board, it said that the reason was due to an ongoing review of the scheme.

It added that the decision was taken to curb the private sector from spending on the scheme for services like inpatient, outpatient, laboratory and scans while these services are fully covered by the state hospitals free of cost.

The circular stated that Aasandha will cover the insurance of patients who are currently admitted or receiving treatment at private health centres under the insurance, and called on the centres to share the necessary information regarding the in-house patients.

The circular also disclosed that agreements made with private health centres will be terminated and noted that an invoice of health services provided in the last 30 days must be sent to the company.

With this decision the biggest private hospital in the Maldives, ADK Hospital, has declared that it will not be covering the scheme anymore.