North leads in Ayushman Bharat Yojana implementation: CEO

BOX—Health scheme’s reach

*As on October 27, more than 16.88 crore beneficiaries have been verified under the scheme and provided with Ayushman cards.

*Further, more than 2.3 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 27,500 crore have been authorised through a pan-India network of more than 24,000 empanelled hospitals.

* More than 20 lakh hospital admissions worth over Rs 2,467 crore have been authorised in the state / UTs of the northern zone.

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, October 29

The north zone is leading in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Yojana (ABY) as states and union territories under this zone have taken several key initiatives to ensure delivery of quality healthcare service to the beneficiaries.

These findings were shared by Dr RS Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of National Health Authority (NHA), while presiding over the regional review meeting of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, also called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY), and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) schemes at Kasauli today.

Punjab and Haryana have taken decisive strides towards the goal of universal health coverage while Uttarakhand has shown zero per cent claim pendency by adopting a special mechanism to address instances of fraud and abuse in claim adjudication in a time-bound manner, the CEO stated.

Punjab is also the inspiration behind beneficiary facilitation agency which is now being scaled up by the NHA across the country, in collaboration with state health agencies, he stated.

A future roadmap for the implementation of ADBM was also drawn up during the two-day event, where delegates from north zone, comprising Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh converged.

Dr Sharma said, “If we work together to achieve a common goal, it is going to transform Indian healthcare system.” He explained that verified and unique IDs were being created for citizens, healthcare professionals and facilities to build a digital trust among the healthcare ecosystem.

“Initiatives for improve operations under the PM-JAY, such as the joint review mission (JRM), have been initiated where we will constitute a cross-functional inter-state taskforce that will visit the implementing state / UTs to meet with stakeholders and beneficiaries at the grassroots level,” he stated.

Dr Sharma also said that Dr Shrikant Baldi, former Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, had joined as the JRM chairman for the northern zone.

“From a national perspective, as on October 27, more than 16.88 crore beneficiaries had been verified under the scheme and provided with Ayushman cards. Further, more than 2.3 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 27,500 crore had been authorised through a pan-India network of more than 24,000 empanelled hospitals,” he said.

Dr Praveen Gedam, Mission Director, ABDM, and Additional CEO, NHA, said “During the pilot phase, Chandigarh and Ladakh have worked extensively and were able to register most of the facilities under Healthcare Facilities Registry.”

Dr Vipul Aggarwal, Deputy CEO, NHA, stated that, “More than 20 lakh hospital admissions worth over Rs 2,467 crore have been authorised in the state / UTs of the northern zone. This translates into nearly 4,200 hospital admissions per lakh beneficiaries.”

He also commended the State Health Agency, Punjab, for having declared the launch of universal healthcare in the state.