111 Fraudulent Hospitals Under Ayushman Bharat Scheme To Be 'Named and Shamed'

Implementing the “name and shame” initiative for preventing fraud in Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY), the central government has put out names of 111 hospitals on the National Health Authority’s (NHA) website which were found guilty of frauds.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan while addressing the — Arogya Manthan, a workshop organised to mark the first year of AB-PMJAY said that there is a zero-tolerance approach in the scheme.

“Ayushman Bharat is being governed on a zero-tolerance approach towards any kind of fraud, and the anti-fraud framework rests on three key pillars of prevention, detection and deterrence. We have de-empanelled 111 hospitals on charges of corruption and fraud,” said the minister.

The health minister said that a robust fraud prevention, detection and control system is proving to be critical for PMJAY to ensure that frauds are prevented. As of now, nearly 1,200 fraud cases reported, and action have been taken against 338 hospitals.

Shedding light on improving the scheme, the minister said that NHA is working on PM-JAY 2.0, an upgraded IT ecosystem. The system is expected to be the best healthcare IT ecosystem in the world. The health minister also congratulated the people who played an essential role in implementing the scheme. The government also announced a reward for hospitals for exemplary work.

The AB-PMJAY is flagship healthcare scheme which provides a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to 50 crore poor people. Since the launch of the scheme on September 23, 2018, hospital treatment worth Rs 46.5 lakh were provided, amounting to claims worth Rs 7,490 crores. Around 53 per cent of the AB-PMJAY treatments were provided in private hospitals, whereas 60 per cent were for tertiary care.

Also Read: Ayushman Bharat: Hospitals Committing Fraud Will Be Named And Shamed, Says Health Minister