Ayushman Yojana
The scheme is targeted at poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families. So, if we were to go by the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data, 8.03 crore families in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas will be entitled to be covered under these scheme, i.e., it will cover around 50 crore people.
AB-NHPS will have a defined benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per family (on a family floater basis) per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. It will offer a benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year. It will subsume the existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), launched in 2008 by the UPA government.
What is the hospitalisation process?
The beneficiaries will not be required to pay any charges and premium for the hospitalisation expenses. The benefit also include pre- and post-hospitalisation expenses.
Each empanelled hospital will have an ‘Ayushman Mitra’ to assist patients and will coordinate with beneficiaries and the hospital. They will run a help desk, check documents to verify the eligibility, and enrolment to the scheme.
Also, all the beneficiaries will be given letters having QR codes which will be scanned and a demographic authentication will be conducted for identification and to verify his or her eligibility to avail the benefits of the scheme.
Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
What are the inclusions?
AB-NHPM will cover medical and hospitalisation expenses for almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures. The health ministry has included 1,354 packages in the scheme under which treatment for coronary bypass, knee replacements and stenting among others would be provided at 15-20 per cent cheaper rates than the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).
What is the eligibility criteria for a beneficiary?
There is no enrolment process in AB-NHPM as it is an entitlement-based mission. Families who are identified by the government on the basis of deprivation and occupational criteria using the SECC database, both in rural and urban areas, are entitled for AB-NHPM. Currently the database is based on census for the year 2011.
A list of eligible families has been shared with the respective state governments as well as state level departments like the ANMs, BMO, and BDOs of relevant areas. A dedicated AB-NHPM family identification number will be allotted to eligible families. Only families whose name is on the list are entitled for the benefits of AB-NHPM.
Additionally, families with an active RSBY cards as of 28 February 2018 will covered. No additional new families can be added under AB-NHPM. However, names of additional family members can be added for those families whose names are already on the SECC list.
The official website of AB-NHPM is www.abnhpm.gov.in. One may visit the site to view and download the beneficiary eligibility and empanelled hospitals list as and when it gets updated.
To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis. However, hospitals with NABH/NQAS accreditation can be incentivised for higher package rates subject to procedure and costing guidelines.
