Why in news?
- Ayushman Bharat entails diverting limited resources towards wasteful areas, ignoring productive fields in public health
- Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS), aims to provide insurance cover to nearly 50 crore poor Indians.
- Government is keen in identifying the fraud beneficiaries which could divert the resources.
- Recently, 171 hospitals were reported to have been de-empanelled from the AB-NHPS on charges of fraud, which also included the issuance of fake e-cards and the manipulation of claims.
- A first information report was lodged against a few hospitals and multiple show cause notices were issued.
Allocations to AB – NHPS
allocation for the AB-NHPS for 2019-20 would have covered less than a quarter of the targeted beneficiaries. For 2020-21, there has been a paltry increase in health-care sector allocation (5.7% above 2019-20 RE), while the allocation for the AB-NHPS is unchanged
