“Soft launch” of new health mission, 20 states are on board

Preparations are on course for a launch on August 15, if prime minister Narendra Modi wants to do it

Twenty states have  so far confirmed their participation in the ambitious Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission (NHPM) – touted as the largest government funded health insurance scheme in the world.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda on Thursday exchanged the Memoranda of Understanding with health ministers of 20 States at the first health ministers’ conclave to discuss the mission.

This marks the commencement of the implementation of AB-NHPM and takes the Mission closer to launch. Training / Demo of empanelment software will be conducted in next two weeks

In his address Nadda said that the initiative will change the landscape of healthcare in the country. “We shall work together, learn together, so that we work with the spirit of cooperative federalism, to perfect this largest health assurance scheme of the world,” Nadda said.

He emphasized that the success of the scheme hinges upon the active participation of the States. States need to own the scheme while Centre will design the policy framework with all possible flexibility and support. “It will be cashless and paperless access to services upto Rs. 5 lakhs per year will be available for the beneficiary families at the point of service in both public and private empanelled hospitals across India,” Nadda said. Beneficiaries under the scheme can avail services anywhere in India.

Among those present at the conclave were MoS Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Anupriya Patel, Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog, Dr. Vinod Paul, Member Health, NITI Aayog, Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health) and Indu Bhushan, CEO, AB-NHPM.

Bhushan gave a detailed presentation and updated the status of the implementation. He urged the States to seek approval and release RFP for insurance company hiring (in case of insurance mode) or Implementation support agency (ISA) in case of trust mode implementation. During the conclave, model tender documents, final operational guidelines for AB-NHPM were released.

A web portal for initiating the empanelment of hospitals under the mission was also launched. This marks the commencement of the implementation of AB-NHPM and takes the Mission closer to launch. Training / Demo of empanelment software will be conducted in next two weeks and States can operationalize empanelment of hospitals by 1st of July.