National Health Authority(NHA) and All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) recently announced a partnership by signing an MoU aimed at providing the healthcare services to 10 million truck drivers in India under ‘Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana’ (PM-JAY) scheme. Implemented by the National Health Authority, PM-JAY is India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme, which is also the world’s largest publicly funded health insurance/assurance scheme.

A tripartite MoU has been signed in presence of Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA by Rohit Deo Jha, General Manager, NHA and Mahendra Arya, President, AITWA and representative from Common Service Centres (CSC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. Also present at the occasion were Pradeep Singhal, Chairman AITWA and SN Arya, Patron AITWA.

Under this partnership, NHA and AITWA will work together to identify truck drivers and employees at transport companies eligible for the scheme. CSC will facilitate the verification of drivers using NHA’s Beneficiary Identification System (BIS).

Through this collaboration, thousands of eligible families will be able to access in-patient care for serious illnesses at a country-wide network of 19,002 government and private hospitals empanelled under PM-JAY. Drivers can get their AB PM-JAY e-cards issued at the nearest AITWA Highway Hero Centre.

The first phase will see AITWA and AB PM-JAY conduct pilot at key locations which will subsequently be rolled out to other towns across the country. Eligible drivers as well as employees, across different transport companies, will be able to avail the benefits of the programme and after obtaining the PM-JAY cards. Officials from the National Health Authority will work closely with the concerned team at AITWA and CSC for conducting beneficiary identification drive.
carry out efficient handling of the process from checking eligibility to handing out AB-PMJAY e-cards.

Sharing his views, Mahendra Arya, President, AITWA highlighted that their partnership with the National Health Authority is a step forward in enabling quality healthcare to transport industry workers and their families. The effort to enrol eligible beneficiaries under PM-JAY from the transport industry will truly strengthen the Highway Heroes project, focussed on welfare of transport workers.

Dr Bhushan said, “The partnership with AITWA is another milestone in our endeavour to reach the maximum beneficiaries across the country. This collaboration with AITWA will enable us to further expand our network to provide quality inpatient care, and we look forward to effectively driving awareness about Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY among potential beneficiaries.”