In a major leap taken by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to make sure much better accessibility of health-related facilities for its beneficiaries, the corporation has joined hands with the National Health Authority (NHA) to leverage the health-related infrastructure obtainable beneath Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) in the state of Maharashtra.
The tie-up with PM-JAY was initially implemented on a pilot basis in Maharashtra in the district of Ahmednagar and now has been extended to the whole state sans the south Mumbai area, Pune and Kolhapur districts.
This implies that in addition to the hospitals currently empanelled by ESIC in the state, a broad network of 807 PMJAY empanelled hospitals would now be obtainable to provide health-related care to such workers and their dependants who are insured beneficiaries of the ESI Act in Maharashtra. With hassle-free of charge procedures, this convergence is anticipated to provide doorstep access of health-related facilities to the beneficiaries.
‘It has been our longstanding aim to provide doorstep delivery of medical care services in Maharashtra and this is a positive step in that direction. This convergence is going to bolster the medical infrastructure available for 1.77 crore ESIC beneficiaries in Maharashtra,” says Pranay Sinha, additional commissioner and regional director of ESIC for Maharashtra.
Additionally, ESIC has recently issued a clarification in view of the distress caused to some genuine claimants of the Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY) who are not able to claim 50% of three months wages for being rendered unemployed during Covid-19 period.
In cases where the employer has shown ‘0’ contribution in respect of an employee for some time prior to exiting him from the program, even although the employee had really been unemployed for the duration of the ‘0’ contribution period, it has now been decided that such claims incorporating the ‘0’ contribution period shall also be permitted just after due verification, topic to the situation that the beneficiary has been exited from the rolls of the employer, even at a later date and fulfils other ABVKY eligibility situations.
This clarification is anticipated to not only bolster the quantity of beneficiaries claiming relief beneath Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana, but also make sure that genuine claimants beneath the scheme are not deprived of the rewards of ABVKY since of the omission brought on by the employer.
“We will now be deputing Branch Managers/ Social Security Officers to advise Employers in their respective jurisdictions to exit such employees whose services have been terminated by them from their system immediately so that payment of relief under ABVKY can be made to such eligible claimants,” added Sinha.