BHUBANESWAR : With the Odisha government all set to sign an MoU for implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), a central team arrived here on Wednesday to finalise the modalities for its integration with the state-funded Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY).
The three-member team led by CEO of National Health Authority (NHA) LS Changsan held discussions with the state’s Health and Family Welfare secretary Aswathy S, mission director of NHM Dr Brundha D and senior officials about the process to integrate both the schemes. Sources said the integration will adopt an assurance-based model, differing from PMJAY’s existing framework, to minimise disruption to beneficiaries. Card holders will not have to worry about the mode of operation and they will continue to get health coverage like before.
Under the new arrangement, a single health card will be issued to each eligible beneficiary, consolidating the benefits of both the schemes. Women will continue to receive additional health coverage of up to `5 lakh as part of the initiative, the sources said.
While GJAY (previously known as BSKY) provides annual cashless treatment of Rs 5 lakh per family and additional Rs 5 lakh for women beneficiaries, AB-PMJAY offers health insurance coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per annum.
The differences between the two schemes - one being a health assurance model and the other based on insurance, and the provision of additional `5 lakh for women beneficiaries - were major challenges behind the delay in rollout of AB-PMJAY.
After a detailed discussion with health officials, the central team also met chief secretary Manoj Ahuja before holding a separate meeting with Health and Family Welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling to resolve the challenges surrounding the seamless merger of the two healthcare schemes.
The Health secretary said the discussions are at final stage and the AB-PMJAY will be rolled out in the state shortly. “The required IT integration will be done at the back-end to ensure no disruption of health services to beneficiaries,” Aswathy said.
Around 3.5 crore people in 1.1 crore families are now covered under GJAY. At least 67.8 lakh families will be covered under AB-PMJAY after its launch. New health cards will be distributed from January after the MoU is formally signed, the sources added.