Govt readies 1,347 healthcare packages under mission 'Ayushman Bharat'

The ambitious National Health Protection Mission will offer 1,347 treatment packages, for which the poor and marginalised section of the society would receive up to Rs 5 lakh medical insurance cover from the government.

The Union Health Ministry is in the process of finalising the standard treatment rates for the packages that would subsequently be shared with the state governments and insurance firms.

The package rates will include all the costs associated with treatment such as hospitalisation, essential diagnostics, surgery cost (if required) and medicine expenses. The expenses of lens (for cataract surgery) or stents (for angioplasty), for instance, will be covered in the package.

At the moment only organ transplant like kidney, liver and eye transplant has been kept outside the scheme, which is being dubbed by the BJP as Modi Care.

Once the package rates are fixed by the health ministry, State governments will have the flexibility to modify these rates within a limited bandwidth.

The beneficiaries would be identified by on the basis of 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census, whose results would be updated through a nation-wide exercise from April onwards.

Subsequently every eligible family nearly 10.74 crore will receive an official letter with a QR code for the family. The quick response code is the same unique number generated by the SECC for each household, health ministry sources told DH.

"Once a family receives the letter, it can produce the same or a photocopy at the empanelled hospital. The information technology backbone would then identify the person and keep track of the treatment," said an official.

A massive IT infrastructure is being created to keep track of loads of data that will come from nearly 50 crore potential users and hundreds of hospitals. The Health Ministry hopes the IT backbone would be up and ready for testing by July.

The two target launch dates for the flagship programme approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday are August 15 and October 2, depending on the progress made in readying the infrastructure, training the personnel and finalising the deals with insurance companies.

The ministry is yet to arrive at what could be the premium for each family. That would be known only after negotiation with insurance firms and completion of the tender process.

"The response from the insurance companies are positive and initially we have set aside Rs 10,000 crore for the programme. Money is not an issue. All the states except Tripura took part in the consultation and the response was positive," said Union Health Minister J P Nadda.