Curtains on Ayushman Bharat plan in Punjab

Vishav Bharti

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Chandigarh, February 24

The curtains are going to come down on the largest health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat-Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojana in Punjab tomorrow.

As per the message sent by the State Health Agency through an email to the empanelled hospitals, it has been stated that the SBI-GIC, the insurance company that was given the contract, won’t be offering it services after February 25.

Sources said the step had been taken by the company as it had been suffering losses for the past several months due to the huge claims made by the hospitals. Earlier in December, the company

had conveyed to the government that it won’t be able to continue the scheme as huge claims were being made by private hospitals.

Following that, the sources revealed due to the elections, the government convinced the company to continue the services till the polling day. On February 20, the company again extended the services by five days till February 25. Now the empanelled hospitals have not received any communication regarding the further extension of the scheme.

A Civil Surgeon, who wished not to be quoted, said tomorrow would be the last day as per the last communication.

The sources further said the company that was providing human resource for the implementation of the scheme had also conveyed to its staff that it was coming to an end.

Notably, Punjab had made changes to the scheme as per local requirements and named it Ayushman Bharat–Mukh Mantri Sehat Bima Yojana. Launched in 2019, the scheme covers around 40 lakh families and under which the government claims to have offered free treatment worth Rs 1,112.41 crore provided to 9.63 lakh entitled beneficiaries.

Bhupinder Singh, who is heading the state health agency that handles the scheme, was not available for the comments. Dr GB Singh, Director, Health Services, also remained inaccessible.