Mumbai: More than 30 years after user fees were introduced in public healthcare hospitals , requiring patients to pay for services, the BMC plans to introduce a system that could make hospitalisation a "cashless experience" for patients.

Towards this end, BMC has set up the Integrated Patients Healthcare Scheme Assistance System ( IPHSA ) to link most patients who walk into any of their super-specialty or suburban hospitals with central govt aid or insurance schemes.

BMC last week floated a tender seeking one or multiple agencies to operate IPHSA in the four healthcare zones that it has carved out in the city.

The need for IPHSA was felt during discussions in the public health department. "Public hospitals in southern states apply and get reimbursements under various state and u

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