Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said that the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) has improved India’s overall health system and served more than 2.2 crore people in the last three years, including remote areas. Including the people living in Mandaviya inaugurated and presided over the inaugural session of Aarogya Manthan 3.0 to mark the third anniversary of AB-PMJAY.
The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 23, 2018 from Ranchi with a view to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“AB-PMJAY has improved India’s entire healthcare system. It gives me immense pleasure that this scheme has served more than 2.2 crore people living in far flung areas in the last three years,” Mandaviya said.
“The journey of the last three years of implementation of the scheme has been tremendous as it has empowered millions of citizens of India with their right to health,” he said.
Mandaviya said that health and development are intertwined. “Universal health care is the aim and vision of the Prime Minister. Leveraging digital technology in the healthcare sector, India aims to set a national goal of digitizing the healthcare landscape to make the delivery of services smooth, robust, quick and efficient.”
“In this regard, the National Digital Health Mission will prove to be a game-changer step. Public government participation is the reason for the success of any government program. Ayushman Mitra is one such initiative.”
Mandaviya also interacted with AB-PMJAY beneficiaries from Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andaman & Nicobar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Assam. Minister of State for Health Bharti Praveen Pawar said that the scheme has great potential to rejuvenate primary and secondary health facilities.
He said, “The theme of this year for Aarogya Manthan 3.0 is Service and Excellence” and I believe that AB-PMJAY aims to serve over 54 crore target people with free, accessible and quality medical care across India. Is completing this noble cause in the matter.”
Demonstrating the three-year journey of AB-PMJAY, Dr RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority said that the scheme is taking a step each day to get closer to the goal of universal health coverage. He said that this exemplary work done under the scheme has been possible due to its robust IT system and extensive work done at the grassroots level.
Since the inception of the scheme, over 2 crore treatments have been provided for Rs. 26,400 crore has been authorized through a network of over 24,000 empaneled hospitals across the country. He said that in the last three years, more than 16.50 crore beneficiaries have been verified and about 50 per cent of this number have been provided with Ayushman cards with women beneficiaries.
Till September 23, 2021, more than 2.6 lakh hospital admissions worth Rs 586 crore have been authorized by availing the pan-India portability facility of AB-PMJAY. Innovative e-Rupee platform can be used to take more advantage of PMJAY.”
During the programme, Mandaviya presented ‘Ayushman Excellence Award’ to the best performing AB-PMJAY States/UTs for efficient implementation of the scheme. The Minister also revamped the major initiatives taken by the National Health Authority – Hospital Helpdesk Kiosk, Beneficiary Facilitation Agency, PMJAY Command Center and Nudge Unit, and PMJAY Technology Platform for ease of beneficiaries while availing health services under the scheme .
The Hospital Helpdesk Kiosk initiative aims to connect beneficiaries directly with hospitals and provide a better and seamless access to information at the time of admission, a health ministry statement said.
It will also help in creating uniform identification of AB-PMJAY for the beneficiaries and patch lapses, if any. It will act as a dedicated service window with the ability to provide all kinds of information about the scheme to the visitors.
Beneficiary Facilitation Agencies (BFAs) will be deployed in public hospitals empaneled under AB-PMJAY. These BFAs will be mandated to screen all IPD patients in public hospitals for their eligibility under AB-PMJAY. In addition, BFA will also provide necessary support to PMJAY beneficiaries for availing services under the scheme.
PMJAY Command Center will ensure real-time tracking of the beneficiary seeking treatment in any empaneled hospital across India. The revised PMJAY technology platform is based on the experience of the last three years, while three core applications of the AB-PMJAY IT platform were unveiled to enrich the experience of beneficiaries, hospitals and claim processing agents, the statement said.
Beneficiary Identification System (BIS) verifies the identity of the beneficiary. In the revised system, self or assisted beneficiary verification facility has been introduced. The new Transaction Management System (TMS) has optimized the documentation requirements for raising rational queries during claim submission and claim processing, it said.
The Hospital Empanelment Module used for empaneling and locating hospitals under the scheme has been revamped to facilitate streamlined process and easy empanelment through digital MoUs.
It will also help in taking informed decision about hospital choice based on the public profile of the empaneled hospitals.
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