6 lakh people availed treatment under Ayushman Bharat in 90 days: Union Health Minister J P Nadda

In less than 90 days since its launch, more than six lakh people have availed treatment under the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), Union Health Minister J P Nadda said.

Launched on September 23 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Ranchi in Jharkhand, the scheme has provided secondary and tertiary care benefits worth over Rs 800 crore to beneficiaries across the country.

The scheme aims to provide a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to more than 10.74 crore poor families or 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled health care providers.

In addition, around 30 lakh beneficiary e-cards have been generated facilitating access to quality healthcare under the scheme to three million poor people.

Currently, more than 16,000 hospitals have been empanelled or are in the process of empanelment under PM-JAY. Out of these, 8,807 or 55 per cent are private hospitals.

"Dedicated to providing the best in class inpatient care for serious illnesses, PM-JAY is performing well so far, two-thirds of the total hospital admission amount of more than Rs 800 crore has been utilised towards tertiary care procedures or treatment for serious illnesses," Nadda said.

"Cardiology and cardiothoracic and vascular procedures such as angioplasty, coronary artery bypass graft and valve replacement are the top three packages of PM-JAY worth more than Rs 297 crore and account for 37 per cent of the total admission amount," he added.

Nearly 3,500 Common Service Centres (CSCs), a network of single-window service providers, run by village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs), that are a part of the government's rural outreach programme for delivery of digital services, have been engaged for verification of Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries through a generation of PM-JAY e-cards across 13 states.