BHUBANESWAR: High-level talks between National Health Authority (NHA) and Odisha Government on Tuesday over rolling out Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in Odisha remained inconclusive.
A team of officials from Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, led by CEO of NHA and AB-PMJAY Indu Bhushan, held discussions with Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi and Health Secretary Dr Pramod Meherda.
Bhushan said Ayushman Bharat is a win-win scheme for the State as it has national portability. “First round talks on implementation of the scheme has been successful. The State has a very good and strong scheme. Our challenge is how to converge AB-PMJAY with that scheme. We will make all efforts to do that,” he told reporters.
Odisha’s own health assurance scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) has two components - free health services for all in public hospitals and special health care for families with income lower than `50,000 in rural and `60,000 in urban areas. Annual income up to `3 lakh for patients suffering from any cardiac or kidney or cancer related diseases is admissible under the second component.
“Discussions were held on how to share the expense in public hospitals where the State is providing free services. They are not distinguishing patients basing on their income status. We have to work out a formula, which is transparent and can be audited. Odisha can give `7 lakh to women, but we will be sharing expenditure only up to `5 lakh,” added the CEO.
Earlier, the Chief Secretary had apprised Bhushan about the components of BSKY and urged the Centre for sharing cost for seamless integration of BSKY with PMJAY.
Since there is no provision for verification of documents of the beneficiaries at public hospitals, NHA may consider to mutually arrive at a percentage of PMJAY beneficiaries using public facilities and factor the average claim size under the scheme for calculating grant-in-aid entitlements for the free services, stated Padhi’s letter to Bhushan.
Health Minister said no decision on implementation of the Central scheme has been taken. “After the discussion we have sought a fresh proposal from the Central team. We will consider if it is acceptable,” Dad said.