About the scheme

• It is an umbrella of two major health initiatives, namely Health and Wellness Centres and National Health Protection Scheme. 

Health and Wellness Centres

• Under this 1.5 lakh existing Sub Health Centres (SHC), Primary Health Centres (PHC) and Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) to be transformed as Health Wellness Centres (HWC) by 2022.
• These centres will deliver Comprehensive Primary Health Care that is universal and free to users, with a focus on wellness and the delivery of an expanded range of services closer to the community.
• HWC are envisaged to deliver expanded range services that go beyond Maternal and child health care services to include care for non -communicable diseases, palliative and rehabilitative care, Oral, Eye and ENT care, mental health and first level care for emergencies and trauma , including free essential drugs and diagnostic services.

National Health Protection Mission

• AB-PMJAY provides a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
• This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures.
• To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme.
• The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.
• A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• The beneficiaries get an e-card that can be used to avail services across the country.

Eligibility criteria

• AB-PMJAY is an entitlement-based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.

Implementation Strategy

• At the national level to manage, a National Health Authority has been set up. It will be chaired by the Minister of Health & Family Welfare which will enable the decision making at a faster pace, required for smooth implementation of the scheme.
• States/ UTs are advised to implement the scheme by a dedicated entity called State Health Agency (SHA).

Why in News?

• Under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, around 12.5 crore e-cards have been issued and almost 1 crore 10 lakh people have availed free treatment.