Ayushman Bharat Counts Ola, Uber, Google And Others As Partners

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), popularly known as the Ayushman Bharat has completed one year since its launch in 2018. At the celebratory event held today on September 30, the national insurance scheme was reported to have verified 10.3 Cr. beneficiaries and created around 50K jobs in hospitals.  

Further, the scheme was reported to have enabled 25K daily treatments, amounting to about 50 Lakh total treatments till now. Interestingly, 18K hospital across the country have joined the PM-JAY programme, out of which about 53% are private hospitals. 

In addition to the Indian government’s allocation of about INR 7K Cr to the scheme, the programme is said to have saved around INR 14K Cr for the beneficiaries.   

To deploy the schemes, various states have taken innovative ways such as Jammu and Kashmir partnered with Common Service Centres through a co-payment model with INR 15 per beneficiary paid by the state. States and UTs such as Assam, Gujarat, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are providing a travelling allowance for PM-JAY beneficiaries to support their travel and treatment. 

These innovative solutions were made possible through various public-private partnerships including Uber, Ola, Google, Common Service Centres, civil society organisations and more.

Other ways in which PMJAY has leveraged digital technology include e-Raktkosh, a centralized blood bank management system; Nikshay, a web-based application for monitoring of TB patients; My Health Record, a mobile application to create and manage personal health record by citizens;  e-VIN, a smartphone app which digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the maintenance of cold chain for real-time management; Mera Aspatal, an application for real-time patient feedback for health services in public health facilities and more. 

Moving forward the scheme will focus on increasing awareness, fraud control, expanding access, bringing down costs through collective bargaining and more. 

Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), the Indian government had promised to provide health insurance worth INR 500K  ($ 7.1k) to over 100 Mn families annually. Further, the scheme is expected to establish 40K Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC), meant for primary health care, by the end of 2019-20.  

Overall, the Indian healthcare market stands at $100 Bn, according to IBEF and is expected to touch $280 Bn by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22.9%.