Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948
58. Provision of medical treatment by State Government
(1) The State Government shall provide for insured persons and
(where such benefit is extended to their families) their families in the State reasonable
medical, surgical and obstetric treatment:
PROVIDED that the State Government may, with the
approval of the Corporation, arrange for medical treatment at clinics of
medical practitioners on such scale and subject to such terms and conditions as
may be agreed upon.
(2) Where the incidence of sickness benefit payment to insured
persons in any State is found to exceed the all-India average, the amount of
such excess shall be shared between the Corporation and the State Government in
such proportion as may be fixed by agreement between them:
PROVIDED that the Corporation may in any case waive the
recovery of the whole of any part of the share which is to be borne by the
State Government.
(3) The Corporation may enter into an agreement with a State Government
in regard to the nature and scale of the medical treatment that should be
provided to insured persons and (where such medical benefit is extended to the
families) their families (including provision of buildings, equipment,
medicines and staff ) and for the sharing of the cost thereof and of any excess
in the incidence of sickness benefit to insured persons between the Corporation
and the State Government.
(4) In default of agreement between the Corporation and any
State Government as aforesaid the nature and extent of the medical treatment to
be provided by the State Government and the proportion in which the cost
thereof and of the excess in the incidence of sickness benefit shall be shared
between the Corporation and that government, shall be determined by an
arbitrator (who shall be or shall have been a Judge of the 102[High
Court] 103[of a State] ) appointed by the Chief Justice of India
(and the award of the arbitrator) shall be binding on the Corporation and the
State Government.