Under its ongoing partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to facilitate the implementation the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, ACCESS Health International recently co-organized a high level event marking the completion of three years since its rollout began in the state. The event took place in Lucknow on September 26. In addition to co-organizing the event and providing technical support, ACCESS Health steered the discussion at a key session titled “Partners in Health”.
The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with a population of over 200 million people launched AB-PM-JAY in September 2018. It is implemented by the State Agency for Comprehensive Health and Integrated Services (SACHIS). The program is the largest health insurance scheme in the world which aims at providing a health cover of INR 500,000 per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to the bottom 40 percent of the Indian population. Uttar Pradesh currently provides coverage to 37 percent of its 200 million population.
The event, chaired by the state cabinet Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mr Jai Pratap Singh, showcased the implementation journey of the PM-JAY in the state while highlighting the milestones, challenges, and opportunities. Two panel discussions titled Partners in Health and Provider Engagement and Network Expansion were organized to create a forward-looking agenda to strengthen the implementation of the scheme. The event was and attended by senior policymakers, technocrats and representatives from various government departments, development and research partners.
The session Partners in Health was moderated by Ms. Himani Sethi, Director, Programs at ACCESS Health International. The session aimed at bringing together multisectoral allies towards building an AB-PM-JAY ecosystem in the state. It was chaired by Secretary to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The expert panel comprised of policy makers and practitioners from Department of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Rural Development, Department of Panchayati Raj and Corporate Social Responsibility Partner HCL Foundation. The panel discussed the demand and supply side challenges in the implementation of the scheme. The group also deliberated on the opportunities for collaborations in ensuring the continuum of care. The session also formalized a partnership between HCL Foundation, SACHIS and ACCESS Health to leverage the network of integrated community development initiatives to increase demand and supply of PM-JAY in the state.
A new state-provided service, the Rapid Response Helpline was also launched the at event The number 155368 will be an exclusive helpline dedicated to escalating and providing resolution in emergency situations, within a timeframe of 8 hours. A book titled Putting ‘Care’ Back in Healthcare on the three-year journey of PM-JAY in Uttar Pradesh was also released on the occasion.
Uttar Pradesh has shown significant growth of the scheme. SACHIS has empanelled more than 2775 providers under the PM-JAY, of which 1673 are private and 1102 are public facilities. The Claim Overdue for Uttar Pradesh is only 7 percent, while the national average is 15percent. Further, more than 70percent providers in the state have raised more than five pre-auths since September 2018, this is 20percent higher than the National Average of 51percent.
Read the entire event report here..REPORT
Also Read “Putting-Care-Back-In Healthcare-3 years-of-PM-JAY-in-Uttar Pradesh”