Even as Delhi stays out of Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, National Health Agency starts empanelling private hospitals
Even as political tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and the NDA government at the Centre keeps Delhi out of Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), Cygnus Sonia Hospital, Nagloi became the first private hospital in Delhi to become empanalled under the scheme.
Ayushman Bharat CEO Indu Bhusan tweeted on Monday: “Elated to share that Cygnus Sonia Hospital, Nagloi (NABH Accredited) has become Delhi’s 1st Private Hospital to be empaneled under #AyushmanBharat #PMJAY. A testament of the belief of the capital’s pvt. hospitals in the visionary leadership of @narendramodi @PMOIndia. @JPNadda“
Delhi has kept out of the ambitious tertiery care health scheme over its name. The scheme which was launched by prime minister Narendra Modi on September 23, enters states as an “alliance” with existing state government health programmes – wherever there is one. In such case the names are usually prefixed with Ayushman Bharat; for example in West Bengal the scheme is called Ayushman Bharat Swasthya Saathi scheme.
However given the impasse NHA has now made an exception for Delhi and started empanelling private hospitals on their own instead of going through the state health agency as is the norm elsewhere
However, Delhi was not willing to give precedence to Ayushman Bharat in the name. On August 23, R N Das, additional director in the Directorate General of Health Services wrote to the NHA deputy CEO Dr Dinesh Arora: “Hon’ble minister of health, Government of NCT of Delhi has approved the entering of MoU with the National health Agency. However, he has also minuted that name of the scheme will be Mukhya Mantri Aam Aad(m)i Swasthya Bima Yojana Ayushman Bharat for implementation in Delhi.” NHA is the implementing authority of PMJAY.
NHA did not agree to the idea and sources say despite efforts to reach a compromise, both sides have remained unwilling to budge.
On August 28, Arora wrote: “Since this is a national scheme with national character, it’s critical that the name of the scheme starts with AYUSHMAN BHARAT. This will also help us in operationalising portability and easy identification of beneficiaries. The state government can have any suffix after the AYUSHMAN BHARAT.”
However given the impasse NHA has now made an exception for Delhi and started empanelling private hospitals on their own instead of going through the state health agency as is the norm elsewhere. Getting Delhi hospitals in is important because it is often the destination for the poor and ailing from all over the country but without empanelment they cannot take advantage of the national portability of the scheme.
