AB-PMJAY to be launched in J&K on December 1: B V R Subrahmanyam

The Centre's national flagship programme Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) will be launched in Jammu and Kashmir on December 1, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam said.

The chief secretary reviewed the preparedness for formal roll-out of AB-PMJAY with all chairpersons of the District Implementation Units (DIUs), through video conferencing here Thursday evening, an official spokesman said.

Subrahmanyam directed all deputy commissioners to take up awareness campaigns in their respective districts. He said arrangements should be made for distribution of golden cards and Prime Minister's personal letter along with other relevant material on the scheme to every individual family.

Subrahmanyam asked for a comprehensive mechanism for timely delivery of these documents to the beneficiaries through the designated and registered common service centres, health centres, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers or other available media and completing the whole exercise of enrolment before launch of the scheme.

The chief secretary further asked the deputy commissioners to organise immediate meetings with the chief medical officers (vice-chairperson of district implementation units) and maintaining close liaison with the state chief executive officer (mission of director of NHM) for any assistance with regard to the enrolment of beneficiaries, delivery of Golden Cards, Prime Minister's letters, so that all decks are cleared well before the formal launch of the scheme.

Principal Secretary of Health and Medical Education Atal Dulloo, Mission Director of National Health Mission, Jammu and Kashmir (AB-PMJAY) Bhupinder Kumar, besides team of officials from National Health Agency attended the meeting.

The scheme is aimed at providing health protection cover to poor and vulnerable families to reduce their out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare. The scheme will provide cashless and paperless access to services for the bene?ciaries at the point of service in any empaneled hospitals both in public and private sectors across the country, the spokesman said.

The insurance coverage under AB-PMJAY will be Rs 5 lakh per family per annum. Every family noted in the socio-economic caste census (SECC) database will be entitled to claim the bene?ts under the scheme, with an estimated 6,13,648 families and 31,50,959 individual beneficiaries to be covered in the state, he said.

The scheme covers 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and daycare treatments, including medicines and diagnostics, the spokesman said. The Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company is the implementing company for the scheme in the state.