Why Private Hospitals Are Blackmailing Dialysis Patients in Manipur

Pain had been building for months before October 31, 2025. That day, weak dialysis patients in wheelchairs rolled through Imphal’s streets. Their arms were bruised, their breathing shallow. Police stopped them just outside Raj Bhavan.Private hospitals, unpaid for over three years, keep warning they may stop treatment. They first set a deadline of August 16, then November 6. Though they still assure to treat patients now, the repeated threats scare everyone.

A single dialysis session costs Rs. 2,000–2,500, often up to Rs. 4,000 depending on the patient’s condition, with 2–4 sessions needed weekly—unaffordable for low-income families reliant on CMHT/PMJAY. Manipur has 25 empanelled hospitals and these schemes are a vital lifeline amid poverty and limited healthcare, easing the burden of high-cost treatments like dialysis in the state. For now, treatment continues. But every new deadline feels like a countdown to death.

Why force these card-holding souls—poor, ailing, and utterly alone—to wheel themselves into the scorching sun when the state can spend crores on festivals and exhibitions?

In a state where funds flow freely for festivals and exhibitions but evaporate for the dying, a ruthless tug-of-war has unfolded: the President's Rule administration and the Association of Healthcare Providers-India (AHPI) Manipur Chapter, locked in a standoff over a trifling Rs 90 crore in three-year-old dues for PMJAY and CMHT schemes, are holding helpless patients hostage with threats of a "death warrant." 

The non-payment was laid bare before the Governor on April 16, 2025, met with hollow vows of "soon," yet the cycle of deadlines spins on, unyielding. Now, with November 6 looming once more as doomsday, patients huddle in terror, their pleas reduced to echoes in bureaucratic voids. 

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From November 6, private hospitals vow to charge full freight for survival, turning free air into a luxury for the destitute. Only the PR governance can shatter this blackmail and release the funds. 

Yet, in a flicker of mercy amid the mayhem, AHPI's October 31 letter to the All Manipur Dialysis Patients’ Association (AMDPA) offered a stay of execution: after an October 25 meeting and fresh whispers from the Health Commissioner, dialysis under PMJAY/CMHT will hum on uninterrupted—for the moment. But in Manipur's fractured heart, where promises curdle like blood in unfiltered veins, this is no salvation; it's just another borrowed breath, gasping toward the next betrayal.

How long will private hospitals continue providing free treatment when the PR administration fails to clear their dues? Will these wheelchair-bound patients once again be discharged—helpless, clinging to the fading hope of a recall from the hospital authorities? They remain entirely at their mercy.

In October 24, Tongbram Romen, a resident of Govindagram in Wangoi Assembly Constituency, who has been receiving regular dialysis. In tears, he told reporters in the press club, “I am afraid to die. I want to live. But now I feel I will die soon because I cannot afford dialysis. Sometimes I can’t even sleep, thinking that my days are numbered.” He was worried about the Association of Healthcare Providers-India (AHPI) Manipur Nov 6 deadline that private hospitals would stop dialysis treatment of patients under the PMJAY and CMHT schemes. 

The protest, under the banner of the All Manipur Dialysis Patients’ Association (AMDPA), began from Keishampat Leimajam Leikai: a frail convoy of wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, and desperate families inching toward Raj Bhavan. Their demand was simple—release the Rs 90 crore owed to private hospitals so CMHT and PMJAY dialysis could continue. Yet midway, police barricades rose like a final diagnosis: intercepted, halted, turned back. The state had found the strength to stop the dying, but not to save them.

Chongtham Lakshmi, AMDPA executive member, voiced grave alarm: “The lives of kidney patients have become uncertain after private hospitals announced their plan to stop CMHT and PMJAY benefits from November 6 due to the government’s failure to clear outstanding bills.”She highlighted dialysis’s crushing cost, rendering government schemes an indispensable lifeline. “We have repeatedly appealed to the authorities to clear the pending dues, but with no response, even ailing patients were forced to protest in the scorching heat,” she said.

Lakshmi condemned the authorities’ inaction as a blatant betrayal of the promise to ensure health security for all under CMHT and PMJAY. “Schemes meant to save lives have now turned into lifeless paperwork buried in bureaucratic negligence,” she said.One dialysis patient, visibly emotional, pleaded: “We fear for our lives if CMHT and PMJAY services are stopped in private hospitals. Thousands of patients depend on them. Please clear the pending amount—we just want to live a little longer with our families.”

Even as wheelchairs rattled in futile protest, AHPI Manipur Chapter slipped a letter to AMDPA: dialysis under PMJAY/CMHT will continue uninterrupted. The October 25 decision—spurred by the Health Commissioner’s October 24 assurance—acknowledged the government’s failure to pay pending bills yet pledged to shoulder the burden. “Patients will receive benefits as per existing norms,” it read. “We understand their plight and remain committed—even while carrying the financial weight.” A noble pause, but one that exposes the rot: hospitals forced to subsidize a state too callous to settle its debts.

Previously, private hospitals notified that treatments under PMJAY and CMHT cards would cease from August 16 unless the government cleared the outstanding dues; however, this measure was deferred after the government assured prompt release of the pending payments.

Under President’s Rule, AHPI’s Dr. Palin Khundongbam reported that the issue was raised with the Governor on April 16, 2025, and with the Health Commissioner on August 11. The government owes private hospitals Rs 90 crore for PMJAY alone, unpaid for three years. This has left hospitals unable to pay doctors and staff. They conduct around 8,000 dialysis sessions monthly, most under CMHT or PMJAY. Dr. Palin urged the Governor and Chief Secretary to release the pending amount at the earliest.

The storm broke on July 30, 2025, when AHPI Manipur Chapter drew its line in the sand: unless the state settled its mounting debts, free PMJAY dialysis would end. Dr. Palin Khundongbam and Dr. James Elangbam, speaking for hospitals stretched to breaking, made it plain—private facilities had carried Manipur’s healthcare load through every crisis, but unpaid bills had rendered further charity impossible. 

From the threatened cutoff date, patients would face full charges, with refunds only if and when the government paid. The message was laced with regret, yet unflinching: act now. In a sudden pivot, AHPI later declared that treatment would roll on without interruption—another reprieve, another delay in the inevitable reckoning.

Amid the halted march, one patient—face gaunt, voice trembling—raised a plea that should shame every bureaucrat in Imphal: “We are terrified,” she said. “If CMHT and PMJAY stop in private hospitals, thousands of us will die. Please, clear the pending amount. We’re not asking for miracles—just to live a little longer with our families.” Her words were not a soundbite. They were a last will and testament from a state that promised health for all, then priced survival beyond the poor.