PMJAY May Not Cover Cataract Operations: Official

NEW DELHI:
The National Health Authority (NHA) may remove procedures like cataract operations from the ‘Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)’ as talks are on to do away with procedures already covered under existing national programmes.

“A discussion is taking place at the national level whether we should do away with all treatments covered under national programmes or retain some. The government feels that the capacity in the public health care domain is not enough to absorb the requirements,” said Heena Dhawan, Senior Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to CEO NHA, on Friday. “However, no procedures have been deleted from the list as of now,” she added.

Launched in September, the AB-PMJAY aims to provide health insurance of upto Rs 5 lakh per family every year for secondary and tertiary care and hospitalisation through a network of Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP). The scheme targets covering more than 50 crore people. Of the total 36 states and Union territories in the country, 33 have opted for the scheme. Three states, including Delhi, are yet to sign the MoU for the scheme.

Dhawan said that the scheme had seen 21.67 lakh admissions in hospitals worth Rs 2,881 crore in just 200 days. “Over 65 per cent of this happened in the private sector,” she said.

“A total of 3.1 crore e-cards have been issued under the scheme and 15,443 hospitals have been empanelled. Out of these hospitals, about 50 per cent are private hospitals and over 65 per cent are super-specialty hospitals,” she said.

She added that the scheme would enable health care reforms in India by incentivising expansion of services in underserved areas and catalysing efficiency and quality in the private sector. “PMJAY will revitalise public hospitals and prioritise quality services to the poor while also reducing fragmentation and cost,” she said.