Addressing the issue of health facilities for ex-servicemen and their families, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has asked the Ministry of Defence to expedite the payment of pending bills by the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) to empanelled private hospitals.The committee also flagged that “inflated bills” submitted by empanelled hospitals was leading to multiple review cycles, increasing approval times.The report of the committee was submitted in Parliament yesterday. It said the revenue budget of ECHS is allocated internally under four main heads of expenditure — medical treatment related expenditure (MTRE), medical stores, salary and others. The committee also noted that during the fiscal starting April 1 the allocation was Rs 12,100 crore.The committee has been informed that approximately 78% of ECHS budget allocation is planned for reimbursement of medical bills and about 15% for procurement of medicines and medical stores.The ministry has been asked to resolve perennial problem of unsettled ECHS medical bills of the private recognised hospitals, the committee noted that the bill processing is a dynamic and ongoing process and normally, it takes approximately two months for the processing a medical bill of an empanelled hospital.The committee said it had been informed that several steps had been taken to ensure efficient and time settlement of bills of ECHS. The committee hoped that adequate fund are allocated so that the inconvenience being faced by the ESM could be resolved, and the private hospitals may not find a reason for rejecting ESM for admission and treatment.The committee expressed its concern that the issue of pendency surfaces before the committee during the examination every year. Efforts should be made for reducing the pendency to the minimum. This will be in the overall welfare interests of the ex-servicemen and their dependants, it added.