PM-JAY was launched in September last year.   | Photo Credit: luchschen

The Central government’s entitlement-based health scheme, the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), has provided treatment to 12 lakh people, and secondary and tertiary healthcare worth over ₹1,600 crore to beneficiaries across the country.

Launched in September last year, the PM-JAY aims to provide an annual health cover of ₹5 lakh per family to more than 10.74 crore poor families, or 50 crore people, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, through a network of empanelled health care providers.

“In the past 150 days after the launch, more than 1.7 crore beneficiary e-cards have been generated, facilitating access to quality healthcare under the scheme to 12 lakh poor across the country. Currently, 14,856 hospitals have been empanelled under the PM-JAY. Out of these, around 7,244 or 49% are private hospitals,” noted a release by the PM-JAY.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said that with its focus on providing best-in-class in-patient care to the poorest 40% in the country, two-thirds of the total hospital admission expenditure of over ₹1,600 crore has been utilised towards tertiary care procedures or treatment for serious illnesses.

“Cardiology and cardio-thoracic and vascular procedures such as CAG (coronary angiography); double and single stent PTCA (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty), medicated and inclusive of diagnostic angiogram; coronary balloon angioplasty; and orthopaedic procedures such as external fixation of long bone, are the top five packages of the PM-JAY, worth more than ₹592 crore. They account for 37% of the total [hospital] admission amount,” the Minister added.

According to the release, 1.3 lakh village-level entrepreneurs (VLE) across 65,500 Common Service Centres (CSCs), a network of single-window service providers run by the VLEs, are part of the government’s rural outreach programme. These volunteers have been engaged for the verification of Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries through the generation of PM-JAY e-cards in 13 States.

Speaking at the 25th edition of Medical Fair India, 2019, on Friday, Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, Ayushman Bharat said: “We have completed 150 days and issued 2 crore cards. We will be completing 5 months tomorrow. We are issuing 4-5 lakh cards every day. Fifteen thousand hospitals have joined the movement and 15% of them are private hospitals. The future of this movement lies in good integration between private and public healthcare entities. I urge all entities to not sit on the fence and wait for the change. Join in and make the change happen.”

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