Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare today visited National Health Authority (NHA) to conduct a high-level review of the implementation of the flagship health protection mission, Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana(AB PM-JAY) and National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). The Union Health Minister also interacted with several officials taking a complete review of implementation of both the schemes covering all important aspects.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “The National Digital Health Mission was launched under the visionary leadership of our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji to expand access to timely, affordable, safe healthcare for all 1.3 billion citizens wherever they are and whenever they need. The NDHM will digitalize healthcare by creating a country-wide digital health ecosystem that will enable patients to store, access and consent to share their health records with doctors and health facilities of their choice.”

The Minister was given a full demo of the key systems of NDHM - HealthID, DigiDoctor, Health Facility Registry, eHospital, Patient Health Records and Consent Manager- by Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, National Health Authority (NHA) in the presence of senior officers of NHA.

Sharing his observations, Dr. Vardhan said, “Today, I reviewed NDHM and I am happy to note that in just a little over three months, the Mission has made notable progress in its pilot in six Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, and will soon be ready for a national roll-out. From both the citizen and medical practitioner point of view, the mission is privacy and security-led and will enable consent-based sharing of health information in the form of test reports, scans, prescriptions and diagnosis reports between patients and treating medicos thereby making follow-up care seamless, secure and timely.”

He added that “One of the most remarkable aspects of NDHM is that it takes into account the lived realities of Indians spread across the digital divide. NDHM will empower millions of citizens without smart phones or those in remote tribal areas facing connectivity issues to still avail healthcare through its offline modules.”

NDHM is a mission to harness technology to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of healthcare delivery in India, through better access to healthcare data. A national digital health ecosystem will be created through the provision of a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems while ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information. NDHM seeks to create a national digital health infrastructure starting with the building of Health IDs, Unique Identifiers for doctors and health facilities, Personal Health Records, and telemedicine and e-pharmacy, among other components.

The Health Minister also reviewed the implementation of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY which completed two years on 23^rd September this year. Appreciating the progress of the scheme, Dr. Vardhan said, “In these unprecedented times, I am pleased to know that more than 1.4 crore cashless treatments worth over Rs. 17,500 crore have been provided to the poorest citizens under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY. During the height of the pandemic, Government of India has been careful to not lose focus away from critical illnesses and ensured that all those needing such essential healthcare were provided the same. This has resulted in savings of nearly Rs. 35,000 crore to the people. We understand that this health assurance and its delivery is a huge source of support and security for millions of families reeling under the extreme stress of serious illness amidst this pandemic.”

Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is the flagship scheme of Government of India that provides a cover of up to Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10.74 crore vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries). PM-JAY provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service. The scheme covers 1,592 procedures under various health benefit packages with defined rates. Over 24,000 hospitals and health facilities providers have been empanelled across the country to provide healthcare services to the beneficiaries.

PROGRESS OF AB-PMJAY (as on 26/11/2019)

• Currently, 32 States/UTs are implementing PM-JAY
• Hospital admissions = 1.4 crore                                                                                                            
• Amount Authorized for Admissions = 17,535 Cr      
• Hospitals Empanelled = 24,653 (Public: Private = 54:46)
• E-Cards Issued = 12.7 crore
• Portability cases = 1.5 lakh
• 14 hospital admissions per minute
• 13 beneficiaries verified per minute
• 8 hospitals get empanelled per day

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MV/SJ