Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW) launched the revamped, digitized version of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Umbrella schemes of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN), and Health Minister’s Discretionary Grant (HMDG) on National Health Authority’s (NHA) IT platform.
Objective: Digitization of healthcare services to enable the poor and needy people to avail the benefits of the health schemes on time.
Benefits under the convergence of CGHS, RAN and HMDG with the NHA platform:
CGHS:
i.It is a comprehensive Health Scheme started in 1954 for Serving Employees, Pensioners, Members of Parliament, ex-MPs, etc., and their dependent family members.
ii.Under the platform of CGHS, the retired pensioners will be provided with Cashless treatment at empanelled centres in a seamless manner.
iii.The present Unit Trust of India Infrastructure Technology and Services Limited (UTI-ITSL) bill clearing platform was enabled to run concurrently till midnight of 10/11 June 2021 to avoid CGHS pensioner beneficiaries from facing any inconvenience.
iv.The e-referral module developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) enable the CGHS dispensaries and wellness centres to issue an online referral to empanelled hospitals.
RAN:
i.This scheme provides financial assistance up to Rs 15 lakhs to poor patients for medical treatment at Government hospitals for major life-threatening diseases/cancer/rare diseases.
ii.Eligible criteria to avail of the services under RAN was based on State/UT-wise BPL (Below Poverty Line) threshold. But getting a state specific BPL certificate from a competent authority has remained a time-consuming process.
iii.AB PM-JAY (Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) beneficiaries would be able to avail the benefit under the RAN scheme for the treatment beyond Rs.5 lakhs as AB PM-JAY will provide coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh only.
HMDG:
Under this scheme, a maximum amount of Rs 1,25,000 is provided to patients whose annual income does not exceed Rs 1,25,000 to meet a part of the expenditure on hospitalization/treatment in Government Hospitals.
Members present:
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, R. S. Sharma, CEO, NHA, Dharmendra Singh Gangwar, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser (Health), Alok Saxena, Additional Secretary (Health), Sunil Kumar, Director General of Health Services, Vipul Agarwal, Deputy CEO, NHA were present at the event in person.
Recent Related News:
On April 12, 2021 Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan launched a new mission called ‘Aahaar Kranti’. The aim of the mission is to raise awareness of the importance of a nutritionally balanced diet & the importance of accessibility to all local fruits & vegetables.
About Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW):
Union Minister – Dr Harsh Vardhan (Constituency: Chandni Chowk, NCT of Delhi)
Minister of State – Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Constituency: Buxar, Bihar)
About National Health Authority (NHA):
It is the successor of the National Health Agency, reconstituted on 2nd January 2019, and it is the apex body responsible for implementing India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme AB PM-JAY.
CEO – Ram Sewak Sharma
