Heath min reviews progress of implementation of Ayushman Bharat

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan Thursday reviewed the progress of the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme and suggested the formation of a task force to discuss probable challenges and find solutions in a time-bound manner. He also stressed on the need for seamless integration of two pillars of Ayushman Bharat -- Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) --- to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Swastha Bharat, Samriddh Bharat' is fulfilled, an official statement said.

The Union Health minister emphasised that a stronger focus should be given on providing information to all eligible beneficiaries about their eligibility and how to seek the benefits of the healthcare scheme. "The Prime Minister has envisioned the scheme for the health and wellness of the poorest and most vulnerable of the country's people and there will be zero tolerance for frauds and corruption in any form," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

He said strong checks and balances should be put in place to deter and mitigate fraud and abuse. He noted that several groups may have been left out of the scheme since the current target group is based on SECC 2011.

"We need to work to include those eligible families who have been left out in the survey to make the scheme more inclusive," he stated. He further said that efforts should be made to ensure the quality of care in empanelled hospitals. "We should try to empanel all quality hospitals for the scheme. Efforts should be made to converge the scheme with the existing central and state schemes," Vardhan elaborated.

Vardhan also directed the National Health Agency (NHA) to augment the number of empanelled hospitals under PMJAY, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities along with ensuring that a minimum two-thirds of top 200 hospitals empanel under PMJAY. Out of 36 states and Union Territories, 32 have signed MoU with the National Health Authority for implementing PMJAY and most of these states have started the implementation of the scheme. Discussions are in progress with the rest of the states - Delhi, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal - to bring them on board.

In this regard, the Union Health Minister Wednesday wrote to the chief ministers of these four states and urged them to implement the scheme in their respective states. He assured them of full support to facilitate the states to adopt one single scheme through convergence with the existing state scheme.