New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS): The National Health Authority (NHA) on Tuesday revised the health benefit package of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
Accordingly, the rates of some health packages have been increased by 20 per cent to 400 per cent in the revised health benefit package (HBP).
Around 400 procedure rates have been revised and one new additional medical management package related to black fungus has also been added. The HBP 2.2 is expected to be rolled out from November 2021.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, "The revised version of HBP 2.2 will strengthen the empanelled hospitals to provide better healthcare services to the beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY. The revised packages for oncology will enhance cancer care for the beneficiaries in the country."
He also said that the addition of new packages related to black fungus will be a huge relief to the beneficiaries.
Mandaviya expressed confidence that the rationalised HBP will further improve the uptake of the scheme at the private hospitals, leading to reduced out-of-pocket expenditure for the beneficiaries.
R.S. Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority (NHA), said that since the beginning of the AB PM-JAY scheme, new packages have been added to cover more disease conditions and the regular rates of the packages are being revised to provide better healthcare services.
The NHA has revised the rates in radiation oncology procedures, medical management procedures like for dengue, acute febrile illness etc., surgical package treatment for black fungus, and other procedures like right/left heart catheterisation, PDA closure, arthrodesis, cholecystectomy, appendicectomy etc.
Under the medical management procedures, the rates for ICU with ventilator has been revised by 100 per cent, rates for ICU without ventilator by 136 per cent, rates for HDU has been revised by 22 per cent while prices for routine ward has been revised by 17 per cent.
Currently, the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY has 1,669 treatment procedures out of which 1,080 are surgical, 588 medical and one unspecified package.
The scheme was launched with HBP 1.0 with a total of 1,393 packages. The scheme aims to provide free and cashless healthcare services of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year to over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families.
Since the beginning of the scheme, more than 2.2 crore eligible AB PM-JAY beneficiaries have been provided with health coverage for secondary, tertiary and day care procedures for the treatment of diseases and medical conditions.