Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) crossed the 50 lakh treatment mark, another achieving in just over a year.

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Under the scheme, every minute there are nine hospital admissions across India. Free secondary and tertiary treatment worth Rs 7,901 crore has been availed in the 32 states and UTs implementing the scheme, under the flagship health assurance scheme of the Narendra Modi government.

The National Health Authority (NHA) reported more than 60 percent of the amount spent has been on tertiary care. Segments such as cardiology, orthopedics, radiation, oncology, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, and urology have emerged as the top tertiary specialties.

Under the scheme, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as the top-performing states.

“The Ayushman Bharat family is growing by leaps and bounds. In just over one year, under PM-JAY more than 50 lakh treatments have been availed by beneficiaries across the country,” said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

NHA CEO Indu Bhushan said: “50 lakh hospital treatments is a significant milestone for PM-JAY, but there is a long journey ahead. The scheme will continue to focus on reducing catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure, improving access to quality health care and meeting the unmet need of the population for hospitalization care so that we move towards the vision of Universal Health Coverage.”

About 50 lakh hospitalization took place in the public and enrolled private hospitals that provide care to the beneficiaries under the scheme. Till the date, 18,486 hospitals have been enrolled across India. 53 percent of the inrolled hospitals were private especially multi-specialty hospitals, in the first year. More than 50,000 portability cases, wherein migrant and traveling eligible Indians have availed their treatment outside their home states.

PM-JAY aims to bring quality healthcare to more than 50 crores of poor and vulnerable Indians across the country. The scheme provides up to Rs 5 lakh annual healthcare benefits for every entitled family, and offer cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service.

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