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Centre launches additional initiatives under Ayushman Bharat

The centre on Thursday launched additional initiatives under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) scheme such as Hospital Help Desk Kiosk, Beneficiary Facilitation Agency, PMJAY Command Centre and Nudge Unit and revamped PM-JAY technology platform.

The initiatives will be undertaken by the National Health Authority, the implementing agency for the scheme for the ease of beneficiaries while availing healthcare services under the scheme.

The initiatives were launched during Aarogya Manthan 3.0 marking the third anniversary of AB PM-JAY scheme for its three years implementation across the country.

“The Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) scheme has served more than 2.2 crore people in the last three years to the people residing in the remotest of the areas. Leveraging digital technology in the healthcare sector, India aims to set national goals of digitizing the healthcare landscape to make delivery of services smooth, robust, quick and efficient,” said Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya who inaugurated and chaired the inaugural session of Aarogya Manthan 3.0.

“In this regard, the National Digital Health Mission will prove to be a game-changer step,” he said.

The objective of Hospital Help Desk Kiosk initiative is to directly connect the beneficiaries with the hospitals and provide an enhanced and seamless accessibility of information at the time of admission. This would also help create a uniform identity of AB PM-JAY for the beneficiaries and patch lapses, if any. It will function as a dedicated service window with a potential to provide all types of information about the scheme to the visitors.

Beneficiary Facilitation Agencies (BFAs) will be deployed at empanelled public hospitals under AB PM-JAY. These BFAs will be mandated to scrutinize all IPD patients in public hospitals for their eligibility under AB PM-JAY. Further, the BFAs will also provide necessary assistance to PM-JAY beneficiaries for availing services under the scheme.

The PMJAY Command Centre & Nudge Unit will ensure that real-time tracking of beneficiary seeking treatment at any empanelled hospital across India, the government said. Based on the experience of the last three years, three core applications of AB PM-JAY IT platform for enriching the experience of Beneficiaries, Hospitals and Claims Processing Agents were unveiled. The Beneficiary Identification system (BIS), verifies the beneficiary identity. In the revamped system, self or assisted beneficiary verification feature has been introduced.

The new Transaction Management System (TMS) has optimized documentation requirements for claim submission and rationalized query raising while claim processing. Hospital Empanelment Module used for hospital empanelment and locating the hospitals under the scheme has been revamped to facilitate Ease of empanelment through streamlined process and digital MoU. It will also help with informed decision-making regarding choice of hospital based on the public profile of empanelled hospitals, the government said.

Mandaviya also virtually interacted with AB PM-JAY beneficiaries from Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Assam. The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare also released the third edition of the NHA’s Annual Report 2020-2021 along with the Lessons Learnt Booklet.

During the event, the Health Minister gave the ‘Ayushman Utkrishta Puraskaar’ award to the best performing AB PM-JAY States/ UTs for efficient implementation of the scheme. The awards were distributed to the States in the category of top-performing PMAM, top-performing CSC State lead, top- performing Public Hospitals, best performing states and best-performing states in gender equity.

Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog speaking at the event suggested that the remaining 50-60 Cr people should also be included in this Universal HealthCare System to reach the unmet people. He also emphasized the need to add more hospitals under this scheme as 24,000 Hospitals are not enough.

“Since the inception of the scheme, more than 2 crore treatments worth Rs. 26,400 crores have been authorized through a network of over 24,000 empanelled hospitals across the country. In the last three years, more than 16.50 crore beneficiaries have been verified and provided with Ayushman Cards with female beneficiaries amounting to approximately 50% of this number,” Dr RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority, the implementing authority of Ayushman Bharat said.

“As of 23rd September 2021, over 2.6 lakh hospital admissions worth ₹586 crore have been authorized leveraging the pan-India portability feature of the AB PM-JAY scheme. The innovative e-Rupy platform can be used to leverage the PMJAY further,” said Sharma.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY was launched on 23rd September 2018 from Ranchi by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi aiming to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Mint

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