Rajasthan to implement Centre's flagship health scheme Ayushman Bharat

The Rajasthan government has given an official go-ahead to implement the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in the state, ending the months-long wait over the implementation of the Centre's flagship scheme.

The AB-PMJAY will be integrated with Rajasthan's existing health scheme, Bhamashah Swasthya Bima Yojana (BSBY).

Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO of the AB-PMJAY and National Health Authority (NHA), the apex body responsible for the implementation of the scheme, said the NHA had constantly been working with the Rajasthan government in finding approaches to seamlessly integrate the BSBY with the AB-PMJAY.

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"On Friday, Rohit Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), Rajasthan, informed us about the approval for the implementation of the AB-PMJAY in the state," Bhushan said.

"We are very happy with the outcome and have assured all possible support, including technical and policy-related assistance, to Rajasthan," he added.

Currently, Rajasthan is providing benefits to 97 lakh families under the BSBY.

Many of eligible families under the AB-PMJAY are already covered under the BSBY.

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All eligible families will be able to avail health benefits up to Rs 5 Lakh per year under the scheme. As far as the technology-related aspects are concerned in rolling out the scheme, Rajasthan would continue the current software implementation, Bhushan said. As a part of package mapping, Rajasthan will run an exercise to ensure all packages specified under the AB-PMJAY are mapped with the packages in the BSBY.

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However, similar to any state running the AB-PMJAY, Rajasthan has complete flexibility to expand beyond the AB-PMJAY packages. The AB-PMJAY is a flagship scheme of the Union governmemt that aims to provide a health cover up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to over 10.74 crore vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries). The scheme provides a cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service. Under this scheme, there are 1,393 health benefit packages with defined rates. Over 15,000 hospitals and health care providers have been empanelled across the country as per these packages.