Ayushman Bharat: Beneficiaries save Rs 30,000 crores in two years of PMJAY

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday inaugurated Arogya Manthan 2.0, a 4-day international conference and workshop organised by the National Health Authority (NHA) to mark the completion of the two years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). Launched on 23rd September 2018 from Ranchi by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, PM-JAY has provided 1.26 crore cashless secondary and tertiary level treatments to citizens.

Currently being implemented in 32 States and Union Territories, PM-JAY has enabled in-patient healthcare services with an authorised amount of over Rs.16,000 crore. More than 23,300 hospitals have empanelled under the scheme.

Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, and Rajasthan have emerged as the top performing states providing the highest number of treatments.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which provides health insurance cover of Rs. 5,00,000 to more than 53 crore poor and vulnerable citizens, achieved a landmark of 1 crore (10 million) hospitalisations in less than 20 months in May this year.

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, “Healthcare in today’s time must be looked at through multiple considerations. Technology must be leveraged well to meet citizens’ healthcare needs. Nowhere is it better demonstrated than Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY which has made technology its backbone to drive access to timely and affordable healthcare through 1.26 crore treatments worth Rs. 15500 crore through its fast expanding network of over 23,000 public and private empanelled hospitals.”

“There have been more than 1 crore successful treatments in over 23,000 public and private hospitals where there are special volunteers to help anyone, irrespective of their status, to get easy access to treatment by showing the digital ID”, Dr. Vardhan said.

Reflecting and assessing the journey of PM-JAY so far, Dr Indu Bhushan, Chief Executive Officer AB PM-JAY and National Health Authority said, “With PM-JAY, India has taken a giant leap towards providing accessible and affordable healthcare to the common person. I am pleased to report that 1.26 crore hospital admissions, worth Rs 15,772 crores have been provided through a network of 23,311 hospitals across 32 States and UTs.

“The scheme has generated a savings of approx. Rs. 30,000 crores to its beneficiaries. 1,25,454 hospital admission have been authorized in non-patient States/UTs under portability of services.

“Kerala leads in the country with 6549 hospital admissions per lakh beneficiary population while with approximately 8.1 bed available per thousand beneficiary population, Goa leads the country. However, among the larger states, Karnataka and J & K are the leaders.”

Speaking about the pride of place that technology and innovation occupy in the running of the scheme, Dr. Indu Bhushan said, “In recognition of its contribution to digital transformation of health service delivery through PM-JAY, NHA was awarded “National Gold Award for e-Governance 2019-2020” for its IT system which is a digital marvel in the healthcare sector. Tonight, seven of the best healthcare startups in the country were awarded as the winners of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY Startup Grand Challenge which was launched as an open platform to source the most promising innovations that can help solve some of our key implementation challenges and will be provided end-to-end scale-up support through our newly launched Market Access Program.”

Seven startups namely, OnionDev Technologies (Gram Vaani), HealthCloudAILabs, Incredible Devices, Universal Mednet, Tricog Health, TrueCover, and Periwinkle Technologies, were recognised and awarded as the winners of the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY Startup Grand Challenge by Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

The Health Minister also launched today the Market Access Program (MAP), is an initiative focused on accelerating adoption of innovations for Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY through validation pilots, procurement support, business intelligence and mentorship services facilitated through NHA. With MAP, disruptive innovations will now have an opportunity to directly access the Indian healthcare system and transform access, quality and affordability of healthcare.