The Government said a proposal to extend Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to all beneficiaries of the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was under its consideration. 

The proposal to extend RSBY to MGNREGS workers is under consideration of the Government,” Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat said.

The RSBY was launched on 1st October, 2007, to provide smart card based cashless health insurance cover to BPL families in the unorganised sector.

More than 1.74 crore smart cards have been issued since then. While the scheme has been well received in the states, the Minister said they have also received complaints about irregularities.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, he said Central team comprising senior officers and technical experts have visited certain states after receiving complaints of irregularities in a number of hospitals in these states involving fraudulent claims under RSBY.

He said the erring hospitals have been “de-empanelled” after verifying the complaints.

Some independent agencies had carried out assessment about the scheme based on which it was found that in Kerala 64.8 per cent rated the treatment under the scheme in hospitals as “excellent” while 25.9 per cent rated it as good, the Minister said.

In Delhi, only three per cent of the patients were dissatisfied whereas 17.7 per cent of the patients reported highest level of satisfaction.

He said the evaluation report in a district of Uttar Pradesh indicated that more than 71 per cent of the users reported to have been satisfied with the hospital services.

Interestingly, “68 per cent of the users reported decline in health care expenditure after joining RSBY,” he said.