Under the MJPJAY, the state government provides upto Rs 1.5 lakh cashless facilities to the families of below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (BPL). And, this includes around 971 types of surgeries and procedures.
The Maharashtra government has pushed its flagship Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) for poor by offering incentives to doctors and paramedical staffs who treat such patients in government run hospitals. The decision is believed to fetch health care scheme to needy people.
Under the MJPJAY, the state government provides upto Rs 1.5 lakh cashless facilities to the families of below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (BPL). And, this includes around 971 types of surgeries and procedures.
However, doctors and paramedical staffs associated with the scheme said that there is a need to create more awareness about it. People from remote areas are not aware, and many of them come to know only when they come to hospital for treatment.
Dr Siddesh Shetty, an MBBS and second year student of master in public health at Tata Institute of Social Services (TISS), carried out a socio-economic study of beneficiaries under the MJPJAY at Sir J J Hospital in Byculla and said that the scheme has brought the desired results. "We interacted with visiting patients in the hospital and informed them about the schemes that helped many poor people to get free-of-cost treatment," said an official from the hospital.
The study was carried out under the supervision of Dr Rewat Kaninde, medical officer at J J Hospital who also looks after MJPJAY. Dr Kaninde said around among 105 patients were interviewed after they got treatment under the MJPJAY.
In the study, Dr Shetty found that half of the beneficiaries under the scheme are unemployed and they did not have health insurance. And surprisingly, they were not even aware that the state government has such scheme for poor and needy people.
The study revealed that around 43% beneficiaries under the MJPJAY were completed their higher secondary but got to know about the scheme when they came to the hospital for treatment. "Around 30% cannot read and write while 33% patients has annual household income was less than Rs 1 lakh," said Dr Shetty.
As per the data provided by Sir J J Hospital administration, in the two and half years, around 15000 people have got treatment under the MJPJAY in the hospital. "We are creating awareness among people and directly interacting with patients coming to the hospitals," said Kaninde. In 2018 upto August, around 5495 patients have already been treated under the scheme. However, Kaninde said that there is a need to reach more people as majority of people do not have health insurance and they spend major chunk of their income in medical treatment.
Dr Shetty said that they analysed the problem area of the scheme also. Though the scheme is cashless, it does not cover out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) like in the OPD. "It is a need to ensure that patients from BPL and APL get treatment under the MJPJAY in government runs hospitals instead of going to private hospitals," said Dr Siddesh. Charges of government hospital is much more than government hospitals and poor people gets exhaust their annual insurance coverage in just one or two visits in private hospitals. And this is also why government has decided to give incentives to staffs of government hospital for each patients they treat under the MJPJAY.
He added that the scheme is available at both private and government hospital. However, maximum claims are seen from private sector hospitals.
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Under MJPJAY, the state government grants up to Rs 1.5 lakh cashless facilities to BPL and APL families. The scheme includes 971 different types of surgeries and procedures
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