New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) More than 9.84 crore hospital admissions worth over Rs. 1.40 lakh crore have been authorised under the flagship Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) scheme, the government informed the Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session on Friday.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav informed that “a total of 31,466 hospitals have been empanelled under the scheme across the country, out of which 14,194 are private hospitals” till June.

“More than 9.84 crore hospital admissions worth over Rs. 1.40 lakh crore have been authorised under the scheme,” he added.

The AB PM-JAY provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to approximately 55 crore beneficiaries. This corresponds to 12.37 crore families constituting the economically vulnerable bottom 40 per cent of India’s population.

Further, till June 30, “more than 41 crore Ayushman Cards have been created across the country”.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of Ayushman cards (5,33,20,357), followed by Madhya Pradesh (4,35,66,400), Bihar (3,91,99,682), and Odisha (3,46,19,714). Lakshadweep has the lowest at 36,563.

The AB PM-JAY scheme is implemented in States/UTs through one of three modes: Trust Mode, Insurance Mode, or Hybrid Mode.

States have the flexibility to implement the scheme in any of these modes, and can switch from one mode to another based on their own.

“National Health Authority has laid down guidelines under AB-PMJAY for payment of claims to hospitals within 15 days of claims submission for the intra-state hospitals (hospitals located within the State) and within 30 days in case of portability claims (hospitals located outside the State,” the Minister said.

–IANS

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