FROM CEO’s DESK

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ISSUE 2, December 2018 “AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar Dear Readers, Well begun is half done! PM-JAY continues to make a difference. Within a period of 11 weeks around 5 lakh people have received benefits and more than 18 lakh beneficiary e-cards issued. While the milestone of first one lakh beneficiaries was achieved in 4 weeks, it took only 3 weeks to reach the next one lakh beneficiaries and 10 days each to cover the next two lakh beneficiaries. The issuance of e-card has now surpassed 1,00,000 mark in a single day. 27 states and Union Territories (UTs) are already im- plementing the scheme through a network of more than 15,000 empaneled and in-process hospitals out of which around 8,000 are private. The toll-free PM-JAY call centre helpline no. 14555 has been flooded with queries since the launch of the scheme and has received more than 10 lakh (one million) calls. In addition, scheme’s web portal mera.pmjay.gov.in has garnered more than 34 lakh unique users. Beneficiary awareness is crucial. We organised a national-level IEC workshop which saw active participation from all the States. Participants had detailed discussions on developing a strong, effective media and communications strategy through interactive sessions and tools such as group activities and role playing. On this oc- casion, we released the PM-JAY branding guidelines to help the states standardize and develop their communications strategies. With the support of a vast network of lakhs of Village Level Entrepreneurs, we are able to reach the doorstep of beneficiaries to facilitate their e-KYC and issuance of e-records. Similarly, ensuring the supply of services through empaneled healthcare provider network is very crucial. States are con- tinuously growing their network. At national level, NHA is leapfrogging by adding railway’s hospitals to PM-JAY network. We are grateful to the Ministry of Railways for discussing this partnership for a greater cause. Discussions with PSUs and other organisations are also in active stage for adding more providers to the PM-JAY network. Based on the feedback, we have made significant changes in our IT system.We have a live, integrated dashboard to aid monitoring. Soon a trigger-based abuse prevention system will go live. API integration with IT platforms of the states is also in its advanced stage. This shall further aid and enhance the sharing of live data with various stakeholders. Institutional arrangements, capacity building and grievance management are now emerging as high focus areas within overall PM-JAY implementation. We are strengthening our overall organisational framework at both, SHA and NHA levels. It is heartening to note that in a mission of this scale, the institutional strength of States is emerging strongly. NHA is organising next round of training for SHA teams in New Delhi with the help of our development partner.The PM-JAY Grievance Portal is also ready for use and our call centres are now better integrated with the State call centres. A ded- icated monitoring unit has been setup to identify fake entities spreading misinformation about PM- JAY. Out of 68 mobile apps reported, 61 have been shut down, and out of 54 fake websites reported, 23 have been blocked.We need to prevent such malicious and fraudulent platforms from misleading unsuspecting members of the general public. We hope this shall deter the future miscreants. PM-JAY is a mass movement and we have to work together to bring about a truly transformative healthcare revolution for this country. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat Thank you! FROM CEO’s DESK Dr. Indu Bhushan CEO, National Health Agency (NHA)

Transcript of FROM CEO’s DESK

Page 1: FROM CEO’s DESK

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

Dear Readers,

Well begun is half done!

PM-JAY continues to make a difference. Within a period of 11 weeks around 5 lakh people have received benefits and more than 18 lakh beneficiary e-cards issued. While the milestone of first one lakh beneficiaries was achieved in 4 weeks, it took only 3 weeks to reach the next one lakh beneficiaries and 10 days each to cover the next two lakh beneficiaries. The issuance of e-card has now surpassed 1,00,000 mark in a single day. 27 states and Union Territories (UTs) are already im-plementing the scheme through a network of more than 15,000 empaneled and in-process hospitals out of which around 8,000 are private.

The toll-free PM-JAY call centre helpline no. 14555 has been flooded with queries since the launch of the scheme and has received more than 10 lakh (one million) calls. In addition, scheme’s web portal mera.pmjay.gov.in has garnered more than 34 lakh unique users. Beneficiary awareness is crucial. We organised a national-level IEC workshop which saw active participation from all the States. Participants had detailed discussions on developing a strong, effective media and communications strategy through interactive sessions and tools such as group activities and role playing. On this oc-casion, we released the PM-JAY branding guidelines to help the states standardize and develop their communications strategies.

With the support of a vast network of lakhs of Village Level Entrepreneurs, we are able to reach the doorstep of beneficiaries to facilitate their e-KYC and issuance of e-records. Similarly, ensuring the supply of services through empaneled healthcare provider network is very crucial. States are con-tinuously growing their network. At national level, NHA is leapfrogging by adding railway’s hospitals to PM-JAY network. We are grateful to the Ministry of Railways for discussing this partnership for a greater cause. Discussions with PSUs and other organisations are also in active stage for adding more providers to the PM-JAY network. Based on the feedback, we have made significant changes in our IT system. We have a live, integrated dashboard to aid monitoring. Soon a trigger-based abuse prevention system will go live. API integration with IT platforms of the states is also in its advanced stage. This shall further aid and enhance the sharing of live data with various stakeholders.

Institutional arrangements, capacity building and grievance management are now emerging as high focus areas within overall PM-JAY implementation. We are strengthening our overall organisational framework at both, SHA and NHA levels. It is heartening to note that in a mission of this scale, the institutional strength of States is emerging strongly. NHA is organising next round of training for SHA teams in New Delhi with the help of our development partner. The PM-JAY Grievance Portal is also ready for use and our call centres are now better integrated with the State call centres. A ded-icated monitoring unit has been setup to identify fake entities spreading misinformation about PM-JAY. Out of 68 mobile apps reported, 61 have been shut down, and out of 54 fake websites reported, 23 have been blocked. We need to prevent such malicious and fraudulent platforms from misleading unsuspecting members of the general public. We hope this shall deter the future miscreants.

PM-JAY is a mass movement and we have to work together to bring about a truly transformative healthcare revolution for this country.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat

Thank you!

FROM CEO’s DESK

Dr. Indu BhushanCEO, National Health Agency (NHA)

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ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

PM-JAY Status Update

To streamline the implementation of PM-JAY, NHA is undertaking an array of activities with the main objective of synchronising the strategies of NHA and those of all SHAs. Dissemination of information and sensitization of stakeholders regarding PM-JAY have been at the core of NHA’s approach.

In order to ensure that right information is shared through the right channels, a national Information, Eductaion and Communi-cation (IEC) workshop was organised for the states on 12th November, 2018 in New Delhi. The full-day interactive workshop, aimed at sensitizing dedicated IEC teams from the states on crucial communication aspects of PM-JAY, such as developing an effective communication strategy, branding elements and their usage, branding through collaterals across various channels and overall press monitoring and response. Use of social media for quick dissemination of important highlights, milestones and achievements of the scheme was also emphasized.

The workshop commenced with an address by Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA in which he underlined the importance of for-mulating a robust communications strategy that effectively generates awareness on the scheme as well as establishes a public healthcare brand image among the masses for PM-JAY. Each session of the workshop was carefully designed to offer maximum learning to the participants while ensuring that all intrinsic elements of branding were discussed. Dedicated sessions on the role of NHA and SHA, overview of branding and utilization of social media were aimed at being engaging and informative. Keeping in mind the objectives of the workshop, the facilitators designed the activity sessions in such a way that the participants shared and presented their perspectives and offered new insights to the existing scheme of things based on their experiences.

During one of the sessions, the participating teams had to create their own branding campaigns, according to their target au-dience and were asked to highlight the issues faced by different states when spreading awareness about PM-JAY. This gave each team an opportunity to discuss the challenges faced and find joint solutions to ensure optimum utilization of resources. Activ-ities and sessions throughout the workshop were constructed to encourage team building among the members of different states and to work as a team towards achieving the objectives of PM-JAY.

Before rounding off the workshop, all participants shared their feedback on their experience and learnings from the event. The result showed that 94% of the participants expressed great satisfaction in terms of learning from the workshop. The main purpose of the feedback was to get a better understanding of the expectations of the participants and to increase and improve communication and coordination between NHA and SHAs. It also helped to establish a swift response mechanism for state queries and create customized solutions.

NHA organizes IEC workshopBeneficiary Identification || Week over week since scheme launch ||10x increase in 10 weeks in weekly verification

KEY HIGHLIGHTS1. Weekly beneficiary identification has increased 10 times in 10 weeks since the launch of the scheme2. Over 75% of beneficiary verification has been done using Aad-haar3. 100% increase in preauth requests from Greenfield states in last one month4. 65% of total 440k admissions happened in private hospitals5. 15k+ hospitals empanelled/in-process (56% Private)

Preauths Requested & Claims Submitted || Week over week since scheme launch

Hospitalisation Public vs Private Hospital Empaneled/In-Process | Till Date TOP USED TERTIARY SPECIALITIES

Cardiology, Cardio-thoracic & Vascular surgery, Orthopaedics, Urology,

Radiation Oncology

TOP USED SECONDARY SPECIALITIES

General Medicine, Opthalmology,Obstetrics & Gynaecology, General

Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Page 3: FROM CEO’s DESK

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

Jharkhand boasts of a special status as PM-JAY was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi from Ranchi. Jharkhand is the 16th largest and is the14th most populous State of India. The State is making rapid economic prog-ress and is also implementing sound policy reforms to ensure people’s health.

The State scheme of Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY) in alliance with PM-JAY covers nearly 85% of its population which is nearly 57 lakh fam-ilies. The State has identified these families using National Food Security Act 2013 data. The State uses a mix of insurance and assurance model and provides an insurance cover of one lakh per family per year (provided by National In-surance Company) and additional Rs 4 lakh per family per year as the assured amount.

Jharkhand is one of the 11 states in India which have implemented the Clinical Establishment Act that facilitates the empanelment of quality private providers. The State team is led by Dr. Nitin Kulkarni, IAS 1995 batch officer who is as-sisted by Divyanshu Jha, IAS 2015 batch officer.

Jharkhand has established a core team and a Project Management Unit with support from development partner GIZ. District Implementation Units are being set up in all 24 districts. District Empanelment Committees are fully func-tional under the district administration. District and Grievance Committees have been constituted.

The State has enabled portability as it uses the PM-JAY national IT platform. Active beneficiary outreach activities and intense IEC campaigns are being reg-ularly carried out in the state. Jharkhand is the first state to enable Common Service Centres for delivery of e-cards. The district administration is very ac-tive and MSBY-PM-JAY has been made a constant feature of all program re-views. The team is fully confident of taking the MSBY-PM-JAY to the path where it will break all barriers.

STATE IN FOCUS: JHARKHAND

District Public Hospital Private Hospital District Public Hospital Private Hospital

Bokaro 14 10 Khunti 7 4

Chatra 8 0 Koderma 7 12

Deoghar 11 11 Latehar 7 2

Dhanbad 10 18 Lohardaga 5 7

Dumka 10 4 Pakur 7 3

East Singhbum 12 18 Palamu 13 37

Garhwa 11 9 Ramgarh 5 19

Giridih 12 6 Ranchi 20 44

Godda 9 9 Sahebganj 8 1

Gumla 12 4 Saraikela 8 11

Hazaribagh 10 5 Simdega 7 1

Jamtara 5 3 West Singhbum 15 10

Sachin Mondal (name changed) was di-agnosed with oral cancer but due to fi-nancial constraints he could not undergo the cost-intensive treatment. After the launch of PM-JAY, Sachin learnt about his entitlement to avail cashless treatment and got himself admitted in Rinchi Trust hospital. He underwent surgery and is now recovering.

RAY OF HOPE

Meet the ‘Eyes and Ears’ of PM-JAY One of the most important aspects of a newly launched government scheme of the size and scale as that of Prad-han Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) is to ensure that the entitled beneficiaries of the program can reach out to know the details of the Scheme, have recourse to raise a query or a grievance, seek information and sup-port at any time during the day, especially during the hour of need.

Since the beneficiaries comprise of largely rural based, less educated and less aware population of considerable size, the mechanism through which information is sought needs to be simpler and easily accessible, involving least effort, time and no expense. Keeping this in mind, a na-tional toll free helpline – 14555 was set up by the Na-tional Health Agency on 24th August 2018.

Termed as the ‘eyes and ears of the Scheme’ by Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA, the call center has been operat-ing without break since the launch and has answered more than 10 lakh calls so far. During this period, many beneficiaries have been able to access secondary and tertiary care for serious illnesses, to utilize the benefits when in critical situations that saved lives and enabled free treatment. The call center is manned by more than 300 trained agents who work round the clock to man-age the calls and provide assistance in all major regional languages.

The call center is also engaged in outbound calling and more than 2 lakh outbound calls have been made:

1. To beneficiaries for collecting their feedback post discharge from hospital, to know their experience, whether any difficulty was faced during the process etc.

2. To hospitals which are unable to complete applica-tion for support and hand-holding and to verify appli-cation validity

3. To empaneled hospitals to verify their readiness in terms of infrastructure, manpower and training for providing services to PM-JAY beneficiaries and to en-courage these hospitals to raise pre-authorization

The Helpline is toll-free and operates on a 24x7x365 ba-sis, the call center provides following services/information to the beneficiaries:

1. Details about the scheme – coverage, benefits, how and where to avail benefits, name & address of empaneled hospitals

2. Confirm eligibility of beneficiaries

3. Inform about e-card – how and where to obtain the same

4. Channelise grievances & emergencies to relevant au-thorities for quick resolution

5. Miscellaneous queries

Besides beneficiaries, other stakeholders like hospitals, Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras and field functionaries can also call the Helpline for support on:1. How to empanel a hospital under PM-JAY2. Scheme details3. Technical queries 4. Case specific support

As awareness about PM-JAY grows, the call center is fully equipped to play a vital role in providing timely information and support to the beneficiaries and to other stakeholders. The call center is prepared to provide help in achieving the objectives of the scheme and ensuring that every entitled beneficiary is able to access hospital care without having to pay from his/her pocket.

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ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

Sec rity is incomplete without “U”

The entire backbone of Ayushman Bharat is based on a critical infrastructure which is supporting the mega health insurance scheme. A disruption to these services, most of which are operated via internet, can result in catastroph-ic consequences.

Threats to information security come in all shapes and sizes

Malware Infected MachinesThe SHA’s have the

ability to upload data files on NHA’s server, which if

done using infected machine poses serious threat.

Clicking on luring advertisements

SHA’s employees having access ID for NHA’s portal and servers may fall in trap of

phishing campaign which may lead to unauthorized people gain access of these portals containing highly sensitive

information of beneficiaries.

Unknown E-mail/Attachments

Opening attachments from unknown sources may lead to the entry

of viruses, Trojan, malware in the

network which will dwell in the network and send information to hackers outside the

network.

Using guessable passwordsEasy to guess password/

writing password may give access to the adversary to perform action like stealing

sensitive information of beneficiaries as a proxy to the actual user. Such type

of attacks are irremediable and generally backfires at

the account owner.

Outdated antivirusNot updating antivirus

softwares regularly may make systems

vulnerable and allow malicious files to enter the SHA system and

thus in NHA network. These

malicious files may crash the entire IT

infrastructure of the agency.

Safeguarding the nation’s critical IT infrastructure is everyone’s responsibility

No amount of technical controls can keep an organization 100% safe unless its people are aware of the information security threats and are alert at all times. Cyber attackers under-stand that the easiest intrusion vector is ‘You’. Therefore, it is imperative to be cyber-aware. Here are some easy tips that everyone must practice to help protect the critical IT infra-structure:

Mission: Patching Humans

When in doubt, throw it out

- Links in emails, tweets, posts and online adver-tising are common ways cybercriminals try to compromise your information. If it looks suspi-cious, its best to delete it.

- Email phishing is a form of social engineering where malicious emails are designed to deceive recipients into providing sensitive information, or clicking links or file attachments that install mal-ware (e.g. viruses, spyware).

- Phishing or planting infected USB drives are a few of the common ways that exploit sensitive data.

Safer for me, more secure for all

- Using internet safely – What you do online af-fects everyone. Secure online habits reduce the opportunities for attackers to install malware or steal personal information of beneficiaries en-rolled.

- Avoiding malicious sites, never ignore warning messages from your browser, never ignore ‘Web-site security certificate’ error.

Ayushman Bharat’srobust IT backbone

A sample beneficiary e-card

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ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

MoU signing by States

KARNATAKAThe Cabinet gave its approval to Department of Health, Karnataka and Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) for the implementation of PM-JAY in the state in alliance with the existing Arogya Karnataka scheme. The MoU between the State and NHA was signed on 30th October, 2018. The State has decided to extend the cover of Rs. 5 Lakh per family per year to 1.15 crore families which includes 62 lakh SECC & RSBY families of state. The implementation is planned through Trust mode using the existing IT system of the State. Within the first 2 weeks, the scheme deliv-ered services to more than 40 thousand beneficiaries and trained 250 government officials of Ayushman Bharat- Aro-gya Karnataka (AB-ArK).

PUNJABIn Punjab, the Cabinet approved the implementation of PM-JAY in alliance with State scheme on 3rd October, 2018. The MoU between the State and NHA was signed on 17th October, 2018 in the august presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, Health Minister, and other Cabinet members. Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA and Shri Satish Chandra, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Punjab exchanged the MoU. The State has decided to extend the cover of Rs. 5 Lakh per family per year to about 43.16 lakh families which in-cludes 35.16 lakh Blue card holders (including 14.96 SECC families) and 7.99 lakh farmers, traders and construction workers. The imple-mentation is planned through hybrid mode using NHA IT system.

KERALAKerala was one of the best performing states during RSBY implementation and had setup an agency named Compre-hensive Health insurance Agency of Kerala (CHIAK) to im-plement RSBY in the state. CHIAK has extended the benefits of RSBY to 20 lakh State identified families under the plat-form of RSBY. After a thorough analysis on how to converge with PM-JAY, the State signed an MoU with NHA on 31st October, 2018. The State will adopt the complete design and features of PM-JAY and extend the coverage of 5 lakh to 40 lakh (80%) RSBY & Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) families of the state.

No trade-offs in healthcare Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana will catalyse changes in the health sector. It is not a substitute for a foundation built on primary care.

PM-JAY IN NEWS

Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) is the most ambitious health sector scheme since Independence. Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi has himself led the process. If implemented well, PM-JAY could dramatically change the picture of the health sector and directly benefit more than 50 crore poor people. Since its launch on September 23, it has already benefitted close to 2,00,000 people.

A mission of such scale and ambition is bound to attract considerable public scrutiny. The discussion on PM-JAY is, therefore, welcome. Com-mentators (including K Sujatha Rao in “Insurance, false assurance,” IE, October 31) have raised several concerns about the scheme. We seek to address them. Critiques of the scheme usually stem from the follow-ing five concerns. One, PM-JAY focuses on secondary and tertiary care, taking away the attention from primary care and public health-related investments. Two, in a supply-deficit environment, raising demand will not help. Three, the current package prices are too low to encourage private-sector hospitals to fully participate in the scheme. Four, hospital insurance addresses only a small amount of out-of-pocket expenditures. Finally, there is scepticism that either the required budget will not be available or provided at the expense of other critical needs.

There is no disagreement that strong primary care and effective pub-lic health interventions should be solid foundation of the health sys-tem. The health and wellness centres component of Ayushman Bharat seeks to ensure exactly that. However, irrespective of how effective and well-funded our primary healthcare system is, a large number of poor people will need secondary and tertiary care. Currently, they don’t have much choice when they fall seriously sick. Without PM-JAY, either they would delay or avoid seeking treatment, or sell their assets or borrow heavily to fund such care. There is no trade-off between investing in primary and preventive health for the general population and supporting curative health for the poor.

It is correct that the supply of quality healthcare is constrained in the country relative to international norms. We have only 1.3 beds per 1,000 people as compared to the WHO norm of five beds. However, even this limited supply disproportionately serves the non-poor section of the population. More than 80 per cent of hospital beds are in the private sector, yet the poorest 40 per cent can’t afford quality private healthcare.

PM-JAY will increase access to both public as well as private sector ser-vices. Where will the incremental supply of beds come from to support the anticipated increase in demand? In the short run, it will come from the spare capacity in the private sector as well as from the more effi-cient use of existing capacity. Private sector hospitals have an occupancy rate of 60-70 per cent. Improvement in efficiency and greater use of home-based care will release some constraints. In the medium-term, the market should respond through expanded private sector capacity in Tier

2 and Tier 3 cities. With significantly greater paying power due to PM-JAY, and government incentives for the private sector and PPP operations, the private sector’s supply of quality services is bound to expand. Over the last decade, approximately 1 lakh hospital beds have been added annually but this will need to increase by almost 1.8 times if we are to reach the target of 3.6 million beds by 2034. PM-JAY will catalyse these changes.

Package rates under PM-JAY have been fixed conservatively with a view to improve the scheme’s sustainability. We have also considered the large volume of business that the scheme will generate, creating economies of scale. States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, where some schemes are already in operation, have been allowed to continue with their existing rates. The government is open to modifying the rates, when supporting evidence becomes available.

Some commentators point to the lack of evidence to show that gov-ernment-funded health insurance schemes reduce out-of-pocket ex-penditure on healthcare. However, international experience goes against this argument. For example, when China embarked on reforms towards universal health coverage in 2007, out-of-pocket spending was around 60 per cent of the country’s health expenditure. It has come down to 30 per cent now. It is correct that there is no national-level evaluation of government-funded health insurance schemes in India. One study of Karnataka’s scheme did show a significant reduction in out-of-pocket spending for healthcare.

We also need to understand the intention behind PM-JAY. With a budget in the range of Rs 10,000-12,000 crore per year, it can realistically be expected to have only limited impact on overall out-of-pocket spend-ing levels on healthcare, which amounts to around Rs 2,40,000 crore. However, PM-JAY will certainly have a significant impact on reducing the out-of-pocket spending incurred on the catastrophic health expenses by the poorest 40 per cent of the population.

Finally, the finance minister has assured Parliament about fully funding PM-JAY, and linked it with the newly-introduced health cess. In addition, public resources for the health sector are likely to expand significantly. The government has committed to increasing spending on health from the current 1.2 per cent of the GDP to around 2.5 per cent in the next seven years.

Our country has a long way to go in reducing the high out-of-pocket expenditure on health, expanding access to quality health services for the poor, and improving the affordability and quality of health services. Only time will tell if PM-JAY will succeed in achieving these objectives. However, we know that the approach followed in the last 70 years did not work. Let us give PM-JAY a chance.

This article was co-authored by Mr. Amitabh Kant and Dr. Indu Bhushan and was published in The Indian Express on 9th November 2018.

Page 6: FROM CEO’s DESK

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

68 year old Pandu Ram (name changed) of Yakubpur, UP, got a new lease of life under PM-JAY. Eight months back, he had met with a road accident and fractured his hip but he could not afford the expensive treatment and thus suffered for over 8 months. It was only after the village head informed him about PM-JAY scheme, that he underwent a hip replace-ment surgery at Pratima Hospital in Bhadohi.

32 year old woman complaining of severe stomach pain was to undergo surgery, but as soon as the doctors at a hospital in Hajipur realised the complications involved, they refused to operate upon her. On admission at IG-IMS hospital in Patna, it was discovered that she was suffering from Spleen cancer, a rare condition found only in 1-2 persons/10 lakh. As a result, first spleen sur-gery under PM-JAY, worth 1.5 lakh was carried out and a 1.5 kg tumour was removed from her stomach.

PM-JAY a blessing

UTTAR PRADESH

BIHAR

An autorickshaw driver from Nashik in Maharashtra suffered from stroke. On visiting the hospital, he was informed about the cost of treatment which would be over a lakh. Under PM-JAY, he was treated free-of-cost and is now recovering.

PM-JAY brings relief to many

MAHARASHTRA

51 year old man fractured his femur, the longest bone in the body. Due to heavy impact and momentum suffered, there was a lot of blood loss leading to complexities in conducting the surgery. However, under PM-JAY at AIIMS Patna, a team of highly skilled doctors successfully conducted his surgery and the patient is recovering well.

PM-JAY a boon for the poor

BIHAR

PM-JAY a gamechanger for Health sector

#PMJAYmakingAdifference

Kunti Lal (name changed), a resident of Madhya Pradesh, got a new lease of life when she received free treat-ment for aneurysm, a life threatening condition of the brain, in Dheeraj Hospital, Vadodara. Being a beneficiary under PM-JAY, she did not have to spend a single penny for the expensive surgery.

PM-JAY comes as a saviour

GUJARAT

A fine example of Portability

PM-JAY gifts life

24 year old Gayatri Kumari (name changed) of Jamshedpur had been suffering from serious stomach pain and was di-agnosed with gall stones. Widowed at a young age, she is the sole breadwinner of the family, and could not afford the treatment. Recently, Gayatri, now working in a tailor-ing shop in Delhi, got to know about AyushmanBharat and went to AIIMS for treatment where she was admitted and given free surgery under the scheme.

PM-JAY ensures Health for All

JHARKHAND

Delhi had its first Angioplasty under PM-JAY at RML hospital. Haryana-based 42 year-old Bhavesh (name changed) got a heart attack and during examination it was discovered that 80-99% of his arteries had a blockage. With the national portability feature of PM-JAY he got free surgery and treatment in Delhi.

HARYANA

This Diwali, Janak Kumar (name changed) got the gift of life. An industrial worker from Bihar, working in Daman, Janak got admitted under PM-JAY and got free treatment for enteric fever and liver swelling in a Daman hospital. So far, through national portability 96 patients have availed benefits and this feature has given strength to the poor and marginalized to access medical care wherever they are in the country.

DAMAN

#PMJAYmakingAdifference

Page 7: FROM CEO’s DESK

ISSUE 2, December 2018“AROGYA SAMVAD” Newsletter for AYUSHMAN BHARAT - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Bimar na hoga ab lachar, bimari ka hoga muft upchar

Editor: Dr. Nishant Jain

Editorial team: Dr. Arun Tiwari, Anushree Goel, Baya Agarwal, Chirag Sidana

Contact us: [email protected]

Visit us: www.pmjay.gov.in

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NHA conducts workshop on Hospital Payment Integration

NHA conducted a workshop on Payment Integration of NHA’s IT application with various banks on 28th No-vember, 2018, with representatives coming in from all the State Health Agencies, 11 Banks, 5 Insurance companies, Third Party Administrators (TPAs) and Implementing Support Agencies (ISAs). An enriching discussion about the current payment process and payment integration approach proposed by NHA was held. All participants gave their valuable feedback and suggestions on the proposed integration approach and a mutual consensus was reached for the Payment Integration Approach to be followed. Feedback and suggestions from all participating banks were ad-dressed and it was agreed to start working on the agreed approach, which would soon be made available.

UPCOMINGWorkshop on Fraud Detection & Control

Date: 14th - 15th December, 2018Location: New Delhi

UP Eastern Region WorkshopDate: First week of January 2019

Location: Varanasi

#AB4AB in KBCDuring a recent episode of Kaun Bane-ga Crorepati 10 (KBC) telecasted on 21st November, host Amitabh Bachchan talked about Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). Informing the audience and viewers about the scheme, he said ‘PM-JAY is one its kind, and is the largest health scheme in the world covering 50 crore people or over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families which can avail free treatment of upto 5 lakh per year’. He also mentioned that the portability feature of the scheme allows people to avail scheme benefits across the country. Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA with

Amitabh Bachchan on KBC 10 sets