Ayushman Bharat Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Centre's ambitious Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, according to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the news agency of the Government of India.

This scheme will be implemented across the country from September 25, the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. According to a release issued by PIB (Press Information Bureau), the Ayushman Bharat scheme, named Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan (PMJAY), aims to provide insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per year to each family. More than 10 crore poor families will get its benefit.

The plan adopts an approach of continuing care, which includes two interlinked components:

• Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana: Providing health protection insurance to poor and vulnerable families for providing treatment without cash to patients and secondary and tertiary care under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
• Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs): In order to provide primary care to patients, the government will build 1,50,000 health and wellness centers that will bring health care facilities closer to people's homes.

These centers will provide comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) that covers mother and child health services, non-communicable diseases, free-of-cost essential medicines and disease screening and diagnosis services.

Health and Wellness Centers will play a vital role in creating awareness about PMJAY, screening for non-communicable diseases, taking cognizance of patients requiring hospitalization, etc. The first health and wellness center was started by the Prime Minister on 14 April 2018 at Jangla, Bijapur in Chhattisgarh.

In fact, the government will upgrade existing public health centers to wellness centres. To ensure seamless coordination between the Center and the states, the government has involved several agencies in this work.

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Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) will provide an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh to each family per year for hospital treatment. More than 10.74 crore vulnerable families (about 50 crore beneficiaries) will be eligible for these benefits.

PMJAY will help in reducing the cost of hospitalization, which is a cause of concern for poverty-stricken families, and will help in easing the financial crisis arising out of a health-related accident that could turn into a disaster.

The families eligible for the scheme will be able to access quality health services without facing financial difficulties. Once fully implemented, PMJAY will become the world's largest fully government-funded health protection scheme. It is a step towards furthering the agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

This plan provides you with the following benefits:

• Can get treatment from public/private healthcare providers without paying cash.
• Covers hospitalization and treatment for secondary and tertiary care.
• Provides an insurance cover of 5 lakhs per family per annum to all the members of the family.
• There is no restriction on the size of the family or the age of the family members.
• The plan also provides protection for pre-existing diseases from the very first day of joining.
• The service can be accessed from any empanelled health care provider across India.
• A fixed travel allowance will also be given for movement from the place of residence to the hospital.
• AYUSH (a system of alternative medicine other than allopathic) is also included.

About 1,350 packages have been introduced under 23 types of medical specialities, which will be provided under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Under General Surgery, 253 packages have been offered while 161 packages have been offered under Urology.

This package also includes room and bed charges, nursing care, procedure cost, doctor fee, consultation, pre-hospitalization cost, two weeks of medicine, stitch removal and two weeks post-discharge check-up.

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Beneficiary Identification System (BIS) has been developed for the identification and verification of beneficiaries at CSCs (Common Service Centers) and Care Points. NHA has tested the software in 80 districts of 10 states and scaled the system based on feedback. Transaction Management System (TMS) has been developed to facilitate transactions from hospitals, such as prior permission requests and claim submissions.

Recently, changes have been made to the eligibility list. All the BPL (below poverty line) families covered under the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census data i.e. SEC 2011 are the beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

The list of beneficiaries in Ayushman Bharat Yojana is now also available to download as a PDF file from the official website. If you are interested in this scheme and want to know whether you are eligible or not, please read further.

The benefit of health insurance of Rs 5 lakh will be given only to eligible families. So, before applying for Ayushman Bharat Scheme, you must make sure that you are eligible for it.

Recently, an online facility has been started by the concerned department using which you can find out whether you are eligible for the scheme or not. You can find more details below.

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An MoU has been signed with the Common Service Center (CSC) for the identification of beneficiaries and more than 3 lakh village-level entrepreneurs will be used for this purpose.

Individual letters with unique family codes are in the process of being sent to families identified in the Additional Data Collection Data (ADCD) drive. This will create awareness among the beneficiaries and make the identification process easier when they visit the care points or CSC centres.

The scheme is creating a framework of certified frontline healthcare professionals called Prime Minister's Health Service Professionals (PMAMs), who will be the primary points for the beneficiaries to help them avail hospital treatment and thus, streamline the delivery of healthcare.

Following are the steps to check your eligibility for Ayushman Bharat Yojana: 

• Firstly, go to the Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana Eligibility Check page. Enter your mobile number in the space provided, followed by the captcha code and then click on "Generate OTP".
• You will get an OTP on the mobile number you provided in the previous step. Enter this OTP in the space provided to proceed.
• You will be logged into the system. Select your state.
• Now, you have to choose the criteria of selection. You are required to select the option available as per your convenience from “Search by Name”, “Search by Mobile Number”, “Search by Ration Card Number”, “Search by RSBY URN” and then click on “Search”.

Soon you will know whether your name is present in the list of beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Yojana or not.

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