The Kashmir Pulse

NEW DELHI — The Government of India reaffirmed on Wednesday that every citizen in Jammu and Kashmir is entitled to the benefits offered by the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana - SEHAT scheme.

Responding to a query in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, conveyed that all residents of Jammu and Kashmir are encompassed within the ambit of the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY-SEHAT scheme. This program extends health coverage of up to Rs. 5 lakh per family, catering to their medical needs free of cost.

Rai emphasized that this scheme is inclusive, extending its benefits to government employees, thereby supplementing the existing provisions of medical attendance rules.

The primary objective behind the initiative is to provide comprehensive health insurance coverage to every resident of Jammu and Kashmir. The scheme facilitates free insurance cover to all residents and offers financial support of up to Rs. 5 lahks per family on a floater basis, encompassing additional families amounting to approximately 15 lahks.

The announcement, made by the Government, assures complete coverage under the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY-SEHAT scheme for all inhabitants of J&K, ensuring accessible healthcare for the region's populace.

JAMMU — A local court has extended the time for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jammu to submit the latest status about the alleged scam in the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pertinently, last year, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed had submitted a complaint before the Director, CBI seeking registration of FIR into Rs. 500-700 crores scam in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Scheme which later came to be transferred by the CBI to the Director, Anti-Corruption Bureau, J&K.

The court had directed the ACB to submit the status report by or before September 26 this month and today, Additional Sessions Judge (Anti-Corruption) Jammu O.P. Bhagat extended the time up to September 30, 2023.

Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for ACB submitted that he has not received the status report from the ACB Headquarters and he be allowed more time to comply with the orders of the Court.

On the other hand Advocate, S.S. Ahmed resisted the prayer and submitted that ACB is taking the matter casually and an attempt is being made to hush up Rs. 500-700 crores scam. He further submitted that a time-bound direction be issued to the ACB so that the status of the scam is known to everyone.

The court agreed and asked ACB to present the status report on Saturday.

SRINAGAR — A private nursing home in Pulwama town refused to perform surgery on Ayushman card, also known as Golden card, after which the patient as well as the attendant had to return disappointed. Meanwhile, the relatives of the patient demanded the administration take action against the nursing home.

As per reports from the news agency CNS, the management of Mohammadia Nursing Home in Pulwama has refused to perform surgery on a Golden card in the hospital.

A citizen, namely Mohammad Asif Pandit from Karimabad village, said that he admitted his four-year-old child for plastic surgery at District Hospital Pulwama. However, the doctors told him that the child will not be able to bear anesthesia in the district hospital. Accordingly, he consulted a doctor in a nursing home, who took the responsibility for anesthesia.

According to the exact advice of the doctor, the child was scheduled to undergo plastic surgery at the nursing home, but the management of the hospital disappointed him by saying that they can perform this surgery for a cash amount of Rs. 24,000 and opposed to performing the same on a Golden card.

“Despite making them understand 1000 times, the management denied to perform the same surgery and I had to return disappointed,” Asif said.

In this regard, when Mohammadia Nursing Home Gangoo was contacted, they said that this kind of surgery is not registered on the surgical portal of the hospital so this surgery can be performed on cash payment only.

It is pertinent to mention here that despite the facilities in District Hospital Pulwama, the surgery of the child was not done there, and later, the surgery was denied at Mohammadia Nursing Home also. This has raised a question mark over the functioning and management of the district hospital.

Earlier, the district hospital was in the news for the wrong reasons as a speech therapist was treating ENT patients in the absence of a specialist doctor.

Meanwhile, the citizens have demanded that District Development Commissioner Pulwama make the hospital administrator accountable in this regard so that the people living below the poverty level do not face difficulties in the future.

SRINAGAR — To achieve the complete saturation of Golden Cards, the Government has developed an online facility for the citizens through which they can register for Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)-SEHAT scheme and download their Golden Cards at the comfort of their homes.

The citizens have to visit the website setu.pmjay.gov.in and register themselves with details of ration cards issued by the J&K Food and Supply Department and Aadhar Card and download their Golden cards. The initiative has been taken to ensure all the citizens get Golden Cards which provide health insurance cover up to five lakh rupees.

Notably, State Health Agency (SHA) recently rolled out an ambitious door-to-door exercise to achieve 100 per cent saturation under the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY SEHAT scheme by the end of August 2022. Under the initiative of 'Gaon Gaon Ayushman', State Health Agency has also started to reach out to even last mile villages which remain cut off from the rest of the world due to adverse weather conditions so as to percolate the benefits of the scheme down to every beneficiary.

Recently, Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education, M.K Diwedi in a high-level meeting directed for the launching of a result-oriented door-to-door campaign in all areas of J&K to achieve 100 per cent saturation by end of August.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)-SEHAT scheme has crossed a major milestone of providing five lakh free treatments to the citizens of J&K UT recently. This scheme has become a ray of hope for poor families who couldn’t afford health treatment at high-end medical institutes in the country.

Recently, a special initiative was launched for women and their families associated with JKRLM to provide them free treatment.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) SEHAT scheme in Jammu and Kashmir provides health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to all the residents at empanelled hospitals. The scheme covers up to three days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days of post-hospitalization expenses including diagnostics and medicines.

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir has recorded an impressive improvement of sex ratio at birth from 923 to 976 while neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate are on the decline.

According to the annual report 2020-21 of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), a copy of which is with the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Jammu & Kashmir Health Scheme has been approved for the UT of J&K in convergence with Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jani Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to provide free of cost insurance cover up to 25 lakhs per household per year.

"In order to meet the additional requirement of Medical Oxygen facilities in the prevailing situation of COVID-19, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has started installation of Oxygen Generation Plants/Manifold Gas Pipeline system in 37 COVID dedicated Health institutions at a cost of 2223.80 crores under Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Budget 2020-21,” said the report.

"Besides, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Gol has provided 908 additional ventilators for various hospitals of the UT in view of the COVID-19 pandemic," it added.

"A multipronged strategy was adopted by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir for revamping the health sector by way of improving health care delivery services, up-gradation of health infrastructure, improvement in supply chain mechanism and reforms in Medical and Nursing Education. This has led to the overall improvement of the key health indicators of the UT of J&K over the years,” it said.

It added, "The Neonatal Mortality Rate (NNMR) of J&K has reached single digit at 9.8 per 1000 live births, recording a 13.3 points decrease and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has declined to 16.3 with a decrease of 16 points.”

"Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) has declined to 18.5 with a decrease of 19 points and Sex Ratio at birth has also recorded an improvement from 923 to 976,” it said.

"Antenatal Check-ups (ANC) of pregnant mothers in the first trimester have increased from 76.7% to 86.6% and Institutional births have increased from 85.5% to 92.4%,” it added.

"Percentage of fully immunized children (12-23 months) against vaccine-preventable diseases has increased to 96.5% which is the second-highest in the country and Life Expectancy at Birth in J&K has reached 74 years, which is highest in the country after Kerala and Delhi, while the national average is 69.4 years,” it said.

SRINAGAR — The much-hyped Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Arogya Yojana is in dire straits in Jammu and Kashmir as financial liabilities of the scheme have mounted to Rs 70 crore.

A number of private hospitals and diagnostic centres were empanelled for providing treatment to patients under the scheme but inordinate delay in getting payments has prompted them to refuse to dispense the services.

“Due to inordinate delay in payments, we are unable to provide payment in time to our suppliers,” is the common refrain from the management of private hospitals. They said currently the Golden Card is accepted at a few hospitals only for dialysis on humanitarian grounds after requests from authorities.

Official sources told news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that about Rs 70 crore are to be paid to empanelled hospitals, out of which nearly half is supposed to be paid to private hospitals, however, their payments have been hanging for months.

The delay has severely affected the financial health of private hospitals as they fail to provide salaries to employees besides meeting day-to-day expenses, they said.

The delay in reimbursement to hospitals is a clear violation of the Centrally-sponsored scheme as they are bound to clear dues within 15 days.

165 government and private hospitals in J-K have been empanelled under the scheme but cardholders are now facing problems at many hospitals as their cards aren't being accepted.

A top official of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna scheme acknowledged that people are facing problems with non-payment of dues to hospitals and said their dues will be cleared within a week.

"A meeting in this regard was chaired by Additional Chief Secretary Health and Medical Education in Jammu and he assured that all payments will be released by the end of this week," he said.

SRINAGAR — The Jammu and Kashmir administration is delaying payment to private healthcare centers under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Golden Card scheme) in J&K which has resulted in delaying of treatment of patients who need immediate surgeries.

Under the scheme, the government pays the treatment charges of patients directly into the accounts of the healthcare centers where the patients avail the facility.

The scheme in convergence with Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) provides Health Insurance Cover of Rs.5lakh/family/year to all the residents of UT of Jammu and Kashmir including serving and retired employees.

As per the scheme the payment is to be cleared after 15 days without any bottlenecks to the healthcare centers.

Hundreds of patients have benefited from the scheme as they availed free treatment from private healthcare centers which otherwise prove costly for them. The Golden Card have made the treatment free.

Owners of several healthcare centers said that they have not received the payment from the Ayushman Bharat.

"We are not able to do surgeries and other kinds of treatment to patients as we are not getting payment on time," said an owner of the health care centre in Srinagar.

"We owe money to medical agencies from where we purchase equipment and medicine for treatment of patients. Owing to unpaid amount due to them, we can't buy equipment and medicine as they refuse," he said, adding, "This has resulted in delaying of treatment to patients."

Social activist Dr Raja Muzaffar said that due to delays in payments many private hospitals were refusing to treat patients in Srinagar.

“The poor patients are suffering and many have to take loans for surgeries and other costly treatments. If this is a scheme of the PM, then the government should not withhold payments to private hospitals. I appeal Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta to intervene,” Bhat said

Chief Executive Officer Ayushman Bharat Yasin Choudhary wasn't available for comments.