A New Momentum to Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY

• National Health Authority (NHA) and NATHEALTH announced collaboration to scale up Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY. NATHEALTH encouraged all its members to take advantage of the program and consider empanelment of their hospitals under PM-JAY in order to ensure quality care is within reach for all Indians.
•  NHA and NATHEALTH have decided to setup a mechanism to provide technical experts and inputs, as and when sought by NHA. This will be particularly important, as NHA intends to start soon with the exercise of calibrating package rates and the development of standard treatment protocols/guidelines. 

Highlighting the critical role of both public and private sector providers for Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY), its implementing agency National Health Authority (NHA) is set to collaborate with NATHEALTH- Healthcare Federation of India.

NATHEALTH & NHA officials met in New Delhi on Tuesday  to discuss collaboration on a comprehensive range of ideas to scale up the impact of the scheme. During the meeting, it was decided that NATHEALTH will extend full support and set up a mechanism to provide technical experts and inputs, as and when sought by NHA and the State Governments. The development of quality and accessible health service packages is an important step towards the goal of PM-JAY.

The collaboration comes at a critical time as NHA will be undertaking the exercise of calibrating package rates and development of standard treatment protocols to ensure quality healthcare across India. The NHA, which has the mandate to undertake costing exercise and revision of package rates, has committed to establish a transparent process based on established methodology and global best practices and is seeking inputs and full involvement of private sector in the costing process.

“This collaboration is part of our practice of mutual learning from the industry to improve design and implementation of PM-JAY. With the well-being of the last mile beneficiary as our focus, we look forward to active and sustained contributions of NATHEALTH towards improvement of quality of health care and increasing private investment in health infrastructure in the country.”  said Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA.

“We are happy to collaborate with NATHEALTH and welcome active participation from its members in our costing exercises and technical support requests. I also encourage all its members to take advantage of this collaboration and consider contributing to Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY by empaneling their hospitals and hence expanding the provider network and quality of care.” said Dr. Dinesh Arora, Deputy CEO, NHA.

“We had a very meaningful meeting with NHA. NATHEALTH, in its endeavor to increase access and quality of healthcare across India, will extend full support to the NHA. We will provide technical experts and inputs, whenever required by the Authority. The exercise of calibrating package rates and the development of standard treatment protocols is expected to begin soon and is a very important step towards a meaningful and sustainable  collaboration ,” said Mr. Daljit Singh, President, NATHEALTH.

“Government officials and industry leaders are of the common view that to achieve set goals under the Ayushman Bharat, all stakeholders need to move forward in a collaborative spirit. Building a strong delivery network, with wide participation by the private sector, is very critical for successful implementation of the scheme and NATHEALTH will work in this spirit with NHA towards fulfillment of Ayushman Bharat goals, added Mr. Daljit Singh

Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Secretary General, NATHEALTH said, “For a larger and meaningful impact of Ayushman Bharat, it is critical to adopt a partnership approach between Ayushman Bharat and the private sector. Focus needs to be on the point that health services delivered to the beneficiaries are safe, sustainable and of appropriate quality to ensure people-centric care. All efforts should be made to strengthen and reinforce the primacy of an effective and viable delivery ecosystem. This collaboration is an important step to work out a robust mechanism that draws upon expertise available across the healthcare sector to achieve universal health coverage in India. ”

Ayushman Bharat  – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY) (AB PM-JAY) is the world’s largest government-supported healthcare scheme that aims to provide more than 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (or 50 crore individuals) with a health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care for a range of serious illnesses. AB PM-JAY was launched by the Honorable Prime Minister last year on September 23 from Ranchi, Jharkhand. So far, more than 10 lakh people have availed free treatment under the scheme and this has resulted in savings of approximately Rs. 3,000 crores to the nation.