Around 1.59 cr hospital admissions authorised till Feb 4 under Ayushman Bharat: MoS Choubey

Around 1.59 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 19,714 crore were authorised till February 4 through a network of 24,321 empanelled healthcare providers under the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) scheme, the Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday.

The AB-PMJAY provides health assurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per year per family for secondary and tertiary healthcare hospitalisations.

The beneficiary families under AB-PMJAY have been identified on the basis of select deprivation and occupational criteria in rural and urban areas respectively as per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 database.

This covers approximately 10.74 crore families (50 crore people), Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said in a written reply.

The states and union territories implementing AB-PMJAY have extended the coverage of the scheme to 13.17 crore families (approximately 65 crore people), he said.