ONLY 2,132 TREATED FOR COVID-19 UNDER AYUSHMAN BHARAT SCHEME

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Only 2,132 people have availed or are now undergoing treatment for COVID-19 under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) – According to figures released AB-PMJAY on 20^th May.

Details of the AB-PMJAY Report

• AB-PMJAY is India’s cashless/paperless healthcare access service for the poor and vulnerable families.
• Testing for and treatment of COVID-19 is free under AB-PMJAY for all its 53 crore beneficiaries.
• The National Health Authority (NHA), mandated to implement AB PM-JAY and for COVID-19, has focused on how to get the private sector more actively involved in offering treatment for both COVID-19 as well as non-COVID-19 health conditions.
• As per information released by AB-PMJAY, among the 21,565 hospitals empanelled under it and of the total new hospitals onboarded, nearly 58% per cent are private ones.
• The NHA’s state of the art call centre was also being used as COVID-19 helpline.
• The NHA is also supporting ‘Aarogya Setu’ mobile application.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)

• Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is the flagship scheme of the Union government as a part of the Indian government’s National Health Policy.
• AB-PMJAY provides a health cover of up to Rs. 5 lakh a family a year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization, to India’s bottom 40% poor and vulnerable population.
• The programme was launched in September, 2018.
• AB-PMJAY is under the aegis of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The PM Jan Arogya Yojana beneficiaries get an e-card that can be used to avail services at an empanelled hospital, public or private, anywhere in the country, with which they can walk into a hospital and obtain cashless treatment.
• The scheme has certain pre-conditions by which it picks who can avail of the health cover benefit. While in the rural areas the list is mostly categorized on lack of housing, meagre income and other deprivations, the urban list of PMJAY beneficiaries is drawn up on the basis of occupation.

Key Features of AB-PMJAY

1. PM-JAY is a health assurance scheme that covers 10.74 crores households across India or approximately 50 crore Indians.
2. It provides a cover of 5 lakh per family per year for medical treatment in empanelled hospitals, both public and private.
3. It provides cashless and paperless service to its beneficiaries at the point of service, i.e., the hospital.
4. E-cards are provided to the eligible beneficiaries based on the deprivation and occupational criteria of Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011).
5. There is no restriction on family size, age or gender.
6. All previous medical conditions are covered under the scheme.
7. It covers 3 days of hospitalisation and 15 days of post hospitalisation, including diagnostic care and expenses on medicines.
8. The scheme is portable and a beneficiary can avail medical treatment at any PM-JAY empanelled hospital outside their state and anywhere in the country.
9. The Central government has decided to provide free testing and treatment of Coronavirus under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

-Source: The Hindu