'Over 1.4 Crore Cashless Treatments Under Ayushman Bharat So Far': Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

The Union Health Minister on Thursday said that more than 1.4 crores cashless treatments worth over Rs 17,500 crores have been provided to the poor citizens under the Central Government's Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) till date.

The Health Ministry's statement notified that the Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan visited the National Health Authority (NHA) to conduct a high-level review of the implementation of the health protection mission and the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), reported NDTV.

As many as 14 hospital admissions are being registered per minute under the scheme and 24,653 hospitals (Public: Private = 54:46) have been empanelled according to the Ministry's Statement.

However, in the wake of the pandemic, when the lockdown was imposed, the beneficiaries of the world's largest insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, have preferred private hospitals over government hospitals as they feared the spread of COVID-19 was more in the government hospital, reported ThePrint.

The use of The Ayushman Bharat scheme fell to half during the time of the lockdown which was according to the analysis of the National Health Authority which is the implementing agency of the scheme.

"There was a small but perceptible shift in PM-JAY utilisation from the public to private hospitals, with several possible explanations for this trend," it said.

In another analysis which was conducted by a group of researchers in the month of June had stated that there was a 51 per cent decline in the average weekly claims under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme.

The planned surgeries such as cataract operations and replacements suffered a decline of over 90 per cent, while other important procedures such as the hemodialysis declined only by 6 per cent.

The report also stated that the weekly nationwide PMJAY claim volume was less 64 per cent less than the average claim volume in just two weeks.

In a recent development, the Union Health Minister has stated about the digitalizing the healthcare system and said, "The NDHM will digitalize healthcare by creating a countrywide digital health ecosystem that will enable patients to store, access and consent to share their health records with doctors and health facilities of their choice."

On his recent visit to the National Health Authority, the minister was given a full demo of the key systems of the NDHM- HealthID, DigiDoctor, Health Facility Registry, eHospital, Patient Health Records and Consent Manager -- by National Health Authority (NHA) CEO Indu Bhushan in the presence of senior officers of the NHA.

"Today, I reviewed NDHM and I am happy to note that in just a little over three months, the mission has made notable progress in its pilot in the six Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It will soon be ready for a national rollout," Mr Vardhan said.

According to a statement, the digitalization of the health care system and NDHM will help the empowerment of millions of citizens without smartphones or those in remote tribal areas facing connectivity issues to still avail healthcare through its offline modules.

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