The government’s well being insurance coverage scheme for the poor and underprivileged households, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), crossed the 2-crore mark in hospital admissions. Treatment worth Rs 25,000 crore has been offered beneath the scheme, which was launched on September 23, 2018, to provide universal well being coverage.
The government has identified 53 crore prospective beneficiaries to be covered by the scheme. So far, the government has offered Ayushman cards to 12 crore men and women, which made beneficiaries eligible for totally free therapy of up to Rs 5 lakh in the empanelled hospitals. The scheme aimed at decreasing their out-of-pocket expenditure on well being.
At present, there are 23,000 hospitals empanelled beneath the well being insurance coverage scheme. This contains 9,361 private and 13,470 public hospitals empanelled to provide secondary and tertiary care to patients. The packages, prices and therapy protocols have been standardized. The scheme also contains 77,440 well being and wellness centres that provide major healthcare.
The government has agreements with these empanelled hospitals that provide remedies at fixed prices and patients are not charged any other health-related expenditures. Union well being minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, chaired a meeting on Wednesday to mark the 2-crore hospital admissions milestone.
For the poor, this was not just a well being insurance coverage scheme but it had a higher effect on their lives, the minister stated. “During health emergencies, the poor borrow from moneylenders, banks and relatives to get treatment and they also suffered the loss of income during illness. Families never recover from these setbacks but with the AB-PMJAY health insurance, people’s lives have improved,” Mandaviya stated. Many disadvantaged sections could now afford therapy with no turning to moneylenders, the minister added.
Speaking at the occasion, R S Sharma, CEO of National Health Authority, stated hospitals have been not happy with the well being advantages package and therapy prices provided by the government beneath the scheme. Hospitals located the therapy prices low and unviable. In a bid to enhance the quantity of hospitals beneath the scheme and strengthen access to reasonably priced healthcare to the poor, the government was working on rationalizing the prices that hospitals could charge beneath the scheme. Hospitals would advantage from the enormous volume of patients they could get beneath the scheme, he stated.
The government was also addressing the problems hospitals had concerning payment delays. For making certain a smoother payment mechanism, hospitals that had a great track record would get 50% of the bill payment instantly by way of a green channel and the remaining settled later, Sharma stated. But if any frauds have been detected then these hospitals would be moved out of the green channel, Sharma warned.
The Ayushman Mitra scheme was launched on Wednesday. These Ayushman Mitra would be volunteers who would help eligible men and women in their communities and locations to get Ayushman Cards. These cards would bring men and women beneath the ambit of the AB-PMJAY scheme.