Ayushman Bharat Yojana or simply “Healthy India” is a national initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the part of National Health Policy 2017 to attain the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all deprived citizens of India. Major aim of the programme is to provide free access to health insurance coverage for the low income population of the country. 50 crore or 500 million people are beneficiaries of this ambitious programme. All the beneficiaries are not only getting insurance coverage in primary health care but also in secondary health care and tertiary health care. Usually specialist treatments are not available in primary healthcare centres and beneficiaries can available specialist treatments in both public and private hospitals under insurance coverage.
Ayushman Bharat is considered the largest government sponsored health care programme in the world as10.74 crore poor deprived rural families ( 50 crore individual beneficiaries) are covered under Ayushman Bharat Yojana. It extends healthcare protection to poor and vulnerable families against financial risk which might arise.
Ayushman Bharat is comprised of two inter-related components, first component is establishment health and wellness centres across the country. Even after many years of independence, remote rural communities often travel distances of upto 50 kilometers or above without proper and regular transportation facilities. Ayushman Bharat is mandated to construct 1,50,000 health and wellness centres in rural areas where 90% of the population are not covered by insurance. The second component or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM- JAY) is the programme to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
PM-JAY will offer a benefit cover of Rs.500,000 per family per year. There will be no cap on family size and age in the Yojana. Girlchild, women, children and elders will be given much priority and scheme is cashless and paperless at public hospitals and empanelled private hospitals. The beneficiaries will not be required to pay any charges for the hospitalization expenses.
Three day pre-hospitalization and fifteen days post-hospitalization costs are covered under the scheme and OPD expenses are not covered by Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
New modification of RSBY
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) is a national health insurance programme launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008. RSBY enables beneficiaries to recieve Rs 30,000 per family per year in the empanelled private hospitals. Almost half of the population under Ayushman Bharat are also covered under RSBY. RSBY also do not cover OPD expenses.
Faster OPD Registration
Ayushman Bharat Digital Missio (ABDM) is tasked to develope necessary support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country. Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) is a hassle-free method of accessing and sharing patient’s records digitally. It will allow beneficiary interaction with healthcare providers, and allows to receive digital lab reports and prescriptions. ABDM has introduced OPD registration services for patients via Scan & Share functionality. This service allows patients to simply scan the unique QR code of the hospitals or health centres by any health application of their choice such as ABHA App, Arogya Setu App and share the ABHA profile and all the details of patient’s ABHA is directly shared to respective Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) resulting in digital registration. The patient can simply visit the counter to collect their outpatient slip and visit the doctor.
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