171 hospitals de-empanelled, Rs 4.6 Cr penalty levied for committing fraud in PMJAY

National Health Authority (NHA) has revoked empanelment of nearly 171 hospitals and imposed a penalty of Rs 4.6 crore on many hospitals in nine states for indulging in activities of fraud in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship health insurance scheme: Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Besides, over 390 hospitals in different states have been issued a show-cause tice and were suspended. National Anti-Fraud Unit (NAFU) at NHA found that re are several cases of malpractices among empanelled hospitals. se misbehaviours have largely taken place in hospitals located in rrn states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

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"Soon after getting tipoff, State Health ncy was alerted which disabled cards, FIR was also lodged and show cause tice was issued to hospitals. penalty has also been levied on TPA," said a senior official at NHA.

Penalties of more than Rs 4.5 crores have also been imposed on hospitals indulging in malpractices, NHA official added. department is also checking for any false enrolment of beneficiaries under scheme.

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"About 3,785 vill-level entrepreneurs who are positioned at common service centres and Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras positioned at PMJAY empanelled hospital have been deactivated so far," stated official.

State authorities reserve certain beneficiary packs for government hospitals. It was discovered that private hospitals were performing and blocking se government reserved procedures and were submitting same under a different or unspecified pack name.

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About PMJAY

Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY is world's greatest healthcare scheme, which aims to reach out to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (nearly 50 crore beneficiaries). Under this scheme, up to 5 lakh rupees is provided to each family every year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.

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(With inputs from ANI)