Empanelment of Private Hospitals under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogaya Yojna: The Need of the Hour

Abstract

Ayushman Bharat (AB) is a flagship initiative of the National Health Authority (NHA) which comprises of two components and one of which is Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogaya Yojna (PM-JAY). The study is aimed at describing the proportion of empanelled private hospitals under AB PM-JAY in comparison to the total private hospitals that exist in the Thane district. For the present study, the data of empanelled private hospitals under AB PM-JAY in Thane district was retrieved from the official portal of AB PM-JAY whereas the data of the total private hospitals that exist in Thane district was retrieved from the database of ROHINI, which is a portal reflecting the total number of enlisted private hospitals by health insurance companies of India. The findings of the study reveal that the private hospitals empanelled under AB PM-JAY make a very low percentage of the total private hospitals of the Thane district. This raises a question on the accessibility of AB PM-JAY. Thus, the statistics above generates the need for empanelling more private hospitals under AB PM-JAY so that it can achieve its goal of having a ‘Universal Health Coverage’ pan India.