The Government Medical College and Hospital, Section 32, in the city of Chandigarh, India, plans to offer a prepaid card to patients. It wants to eliminate lines for payments, so it will have patients and their families load up the card and then use it for expenses.
According to the proposal worked out by the department of hospital administration, the relatives and family members of the patients will no longer have to stand in long queues show receipts at each counter. Instead, the card will act as a facilitator and each time it will be swiped for a payment. The record will be stored in the computer against the specific smart card.
The hospital has reported started installing swipe machines for the card throughout the hospital. It is not clear whether there will be clerks at each machine, if the patients will swipe the cards themselves, or if medical staff will have to serve a second role as bill payment collectors.
