Free treatment worth Rs 61,501 crore given under the scheme: Centre

“AB PM-JAY was launched with the vision to achieve universal health coverage. Currently, in its fifth year of implementation, the scheme is helping crores of beneficiaries from poor and vulnerable families by reducing the out-of-pocket expenditure for medical treatments. Consistent efforts have helped achieve several milestones for PM-JAY in the current year,” NHA said. 

“From issuing 92.8 million Ayushman cards to scheme beneficiaries to achieving 100 per cent allocated fund utilisation and authorisation of 16.5 million hospital admissions, the year 2022-23 has been full of accomplishments for the scheme,” it said.

The ABPM-JAY is being implemented in 33 states and Union Territories (UTs) except for Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal.

Till date, 233.9 million beneficiaries have been verified and issued Ayushman cards for availing of free treatment under the scheme. The beneficiaries of ABPM-JAY are given co-branded PVC Ayushman cards, a health ministry statement said.

The PM-JAY empanelled hospital network consists of 28,351 hospitals (including 12,824 private hospitals) across the country, it stated. During the year 2022-23, approximately 56 per cent of the total admissions (by amount) were authorised in private hospitals, while 44 per cent were authorised in public hospitals.

The AB PM-JAY beneficiaries can avail treatment corresponding to a total of 1,949 procedures under 27 different specialties. The top tertiary care specialities under which treatments has been availed by beneficiaries till date are medical oncology (cancer treatment), emergency care, orthopaedic and urology (kidney-related ailments).

Further, under the scheme, a conscious effort has been made to ensure gender equity in access to quality healthcare, the statement said.

As a result of the conducive policies, approximately 49 per cent of Ayushman card recipients are women and over 48 per cent of total authorised hospital admissions under AB PM-JAY scheme have been availed by women, it said.