The National Health Authority (NHA) has revised the Health Benefit Package (HBP) Master below the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB- PMJAY). In the revised version of Health Benefit Package (HBP 2.2), prices of some well being packages have been improved by 20 % to 400 per cent below PMJAY, NHA stated in a statement.
The NHA additional stated that prices of about 400 process have been revised and one new more health-related management package connected to black fungus have also been added.
Currently, Ayushman Bharat PMJAY has 1669 therapy procedures out of which 1080 are surgical, 588 health-related and one unspecified package.
Ayushman Bharat PMJAY aims to accomplish the target of Universal Health Coverage and provide access to absolutely free and economical healthcare services to the citizens residing in the remotest of the locations. The scheme aims to provide absolutely free and cashless healthcare services up to Rs 5 lakhs per family per year to more than 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable households (more than 53 crore beneficiaries) as per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC)-2011 database.
What has changed
The price revision has been accomplished in the following categories:
(i) radiation oncology procedures
(ii) Medical Management procedures like process for dengue, acute febrile illness and so on
(iii) surgical package therapy for black fungus
(iv) other procedures like Right/left heart catheterization, PDA closure, Arthrodesis, Cholecystectomy, appendicectomy and so on.
Under health-related management procedures, prices for ICU with ventilator has been revised by one hundred %, prices for ICU with no ventilator by 136 %, prices for HDU has been revised by 22 % even though rates for routine ward has been revised by 17 %. The HBP 2.2 is anticipated to be rolled out from November, 2021.
Commenting on the revision of prices, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya stated, “I am glad that the revised version of Health Benefit Packages (HBP 2.2) will strengthen the empanelled hospitals to provide better healthcare services to the beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY. The revised packages for oncology will enhance cancer care for the beneficiaries in the country. Addition of new packages related to black fungus will be a huge relief to the beneficiaries. I am sure that the rationalised HBP will further improve the uptake of scheme in private hospitals leading to reduced Out-of-Pocket Expenditure for the beneficiaries.”
Dr RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority (NHA) stated: “We constantly work on the feedback received from stakeholders for rationalization of health benefit package master. Since the inception of the AB PM-JAY scheme, new packages have been added to cover more disease conditions and regular rates of the packages are being revised to provide better healthcare services. These changes are necessitated to ensure effective implementation of the scheme and will be made in the Transaction Management System (TMS) to ensure that there are no challenges in portability. State Health Agencies (SHAs) currently implementing any of the previous versions of HBP can now accept and implement the latest version of HBP 2.2. NHA is doing continuous consultation with stakeholders and eminent professors of premier medical institutes.”
In 2018, Ayushman Bharat PMJAY was launched with the HBP 1. with a total of 1,393 packages. Since the inception of the scheme, more than 2.2 crore eligible AB-PMJAY beneficiary have been offered with well being coverage for secondary, tertiary and day care procedures for therapy of ailments and health-related situations by means of a vast network of 24,000 Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP).
NHA is the apex body for implementing Ayushman Bharat PMJAY.