Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri JP Nadda today reviewed the progress of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

In around first 200 days of implementation, PM-JAY has benefitted more than 20.8 lakh poor and deprived people who received free treatment worth more than Rs. 5,000 crores. Due to collective bargaining by the National Health Authority, these treatments could be arranged by committing only Rs. 2760 crores, ensuring large savings for beneficiaries as well as the health system. More than 3.07 Crore beneficiaries were issued their PM-JAY eCard. More than 15,400 hospitals have been empanelled under PM-JAY, of which nearly 50% are private hospitals.

Also, more than 1 crore users have utilized the Mera PM-JAY portal to check their entitlement and around 38 lakh calls have been answered by the PM-JAY national call centre. Many more calls were fielded by state call centres. Through national portability, more than 13,000 beneficiaries have received treatment worth Rs. 33 crores outside their States.

Shri JP Nadda applauded the National Health Authority for the impressive progress of the scheme. The Minister remarked that “It is gratifying to see the excellent achievements under the scheme in such a short time period. It is commendable that an effective mechanism for implementing PM-JAY and robust monitoring system has been put in place. The scheme is changing the entire healthcare scenario of the country and has now made access to secondary and tertiary care a reality for crores of Indian deprived citizens.”

Minister Shri Nadda also chaired the first meeting of the Governing Board of NHA for AB PM-JAY. Amitabha Kant CEO, NITI Aayog, G.C. Murmu, Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Preeti Sudan, Health Secretary (Department of Health and Family Welfare), Indu Bhushan CEO National Health Authority, and Nitin Kulkarni Health Secretary Jharkhand attended the meeting. The Governing Board discussed the progress of PM-JAY and other operational issues including the transition of National Health Agency to National Health Authority, the fund flow mechanism, and delegation of powers.

AB-PMJAY is the key flagship healthcare scheme launched by the Government of India. The aim of AB- PMJAY is to reduce the financial burden on poor and vulnerable groups arising out of catastrophic hospital episodes. AB-PMJAY, launched by the Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in September 2018, provides a financial health cover of Rs. 5 lacs to more than 10.74 crore Indian families per year for secondary and tertiary medical care.  Further, the Government has established the National Health Authority (NHA) to serve as the nodal entity for the design and implementation of AB-PMJAY.