Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana was launched on 23.09.2018 to provide health cover up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approx. 50 crore individuals) based on the deprivation and occupational criteria as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census.
The scheme provides for paperless and cashless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service i.e. empanelled public and private hospitals across India. To facilitate this, an online transaction management system has been adopted by States/UTs. Further, claims of the hospitals are also settled through an online portal in a time-bound manner.
Salient Features of AyushmanBharat -PradhanMantri Jan ArogyaYojana
1. Government of India has launched Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) on 23.09.2018. PMJAY is a centrally sponsored scheme. It is entirely funded by Government and the funding is shared between Centre and State governments as per prevailing guidelines of Ministry of Finance.
2. PMJAY provides health cover up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalization to around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approx. 50 crore beneficiaries).
3. PMJAY is an entitlement based scheme. This scheme covers poor and vulnerable families based on deprivation and occupational criteria as per the SECC database.
4. PMJAY provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service in any (both public and private) empanelled hospitals across India. In other words, a beneficiary from one State can avail benefits from an empanelled Hospital anywhere in the Country.
5. Under PMAJY, the States are free to choose the modalities for implementation. They can implement the scheme through an insurance company or directly through the Trust/ Society or a mixed model.
6. There is no restriction on family size, ensuring all members of designated families specifically girl child and senior citizens get coverage.
7. A well-defined Complaint and Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism has been put in place through which complaints/ grievances are registered, acknowledged, escalated for relevant action, resolved and monitored.
8. PMJAY has created a robust IT system for implementation and role of real-time transaction data.
9. At the National level, the National Health Authority (NHA) has been set up as an attached office to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to manage the implementation of the scheme.
10. The details of package, operational guidelines and key features are available at www. pmjay.gov.in