NHA joins hands with Google to enhance implementation of Ayushman Bharat and PMJAY

NHA is implementing Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the world’s largest public-funded health insurance scheme aimed to bring quality healthcare to around 50 crore poor and vulnerable Indians across India.

National Health Authority (NHA) has signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Google to collaborate and strengthen the implementation of Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). The two organizations will be working closely to explore various use cases for increasing process efficiencies in day-to-day applications. Google will also support NHA in improving PM-JAYs digital presence and showcasing relevant content to the 50 crore entitled beneficiaries.

Furthermore, Google shall help provide training and support to NHA personnel to build on digital skills. The collaboration will seek to bolster PM-JAY's objective of reaching the poor and vulnerable, reducing their high out-of-pocket health expenditure, and improving access to quality healthcare.

Speaking on the alliance with Google, Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO NHA said, "Robust technology is the mainstay of PM-JAY. In various areas such as fraud prevention and detection, claim approvals, the use of technology can help reduce the turnaround time and aiding faster closure of processes will enable the States to implement the scheme more effectively. "We look forward to collaborating with Google to improve our online presence ".

Speaking about the partnership, Chetan Krishnaswamy, Director Public Policy, Google India and South Asia, said, "We are delighted to collaborate with National Health Authority to strengthen its online presence, and drive digital training programs for the teams and also explore the best possible ways to extend the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to the citizens. With the advancements in technologies like Machine learning, the teams will also explore the best solutions that can help NHA to efficiently scale the process of PM-JAY." NHA is implementing Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the world's largest public-funded health insurance scheme aimed to bring quality healthcare to around 50 crore poor and vulnerable Indians across India. The mission of NHA is to create the world's best health assurance programme on an efficient and technologically robust eco-system.

The first year of PM-JAY has been significant. This alliance with an innovative technology player like Google will provide further momentum to NHA in its long journey ahead; and will help take India one step closer towards its goal of Universal Health Coverage.

Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) provides a cover of up to Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. Over 10.74 crore vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits. PM-JAY provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service. PM-JAY will help reduce catastrophic expenditure for hospitalizations, which impoverishes people and will help mitigate the financial risk arising out of catastrophic health episodes. Entitled families will be able to use the quality health services they need without facing financial hardships.

On 23^rd September 2019, PM-JAY completed a year of its implementation. More than 47.71 lakh hospital treatments worth Rs.7,500 have been carried out across more than 18,340 hospitals in the country.

(With inputs from National Health Authority)