The Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) and Star Health and Allied Insurance Company on Sunday announced that cashless services will resume at AHPI member hospitals from October 10. In a joint statement, both organisations said they will work to resolve all remaining issues — including tariff revisions — by October 31, 2025.
The agreement follows weeks of negotiations after AHPI had earlier issued an advisory urging its members to suspend cashless facilities from September 22 in protest over pricing and other concerns. With the resolution, AHPI has revoked that advisory and confirmed efforts are underway to settle other pending matters within the next month.
To prevent similar disputes in future, AHPI plans to create a panel of industry leaders to work with insurers on an industry-level agreement that keeps patient interests at the forefront. “We are pleased that our dialogue with Star Health Insurance has resulted in this positive outcome,” said Dr. Girdhar Gyani, Director General of AHPI. “The restoration of cashless services will ease the burden on patients and their families, who deserve uninterrupted access to care.”
Anand Roy, MD & CEO of Star Health Insurance, echoed the sentiment: “At Star Health Insurance, our foremost priority is the well-being of our policyholders. We are glad to have resolved the issues through constructive engagement with AHPI. Restoring cashless services at member hospitals reflects our commitment to ensuring accessible, affordable, and seamless healthcare for our customers.”
The suspension of cashless services had caused significant disruption for patients at several major hospitals. Among the affected facilities were Care Hospitals (Ramnagar, Vizag), Manipal Hospitals (Delhi and Gurugram), Max Hospitals (North India), Metro Hospital (Faridabad), Medanta Hospital (Lucknow), Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital (New Delhi), Sarvodaya Hospital (Faridabad), and Yatharth Hospitals. AHPI had earlier criticised the suspension as “arbitrary” and warned of patient distress.
With cashless services now set to resume, both AHPI and Star Health say they are committed to a more collaborative, patient-centric approach to healthcare delivery and insurance settlement going forward.
