Centre approved 1.10 lakh hospital admissions worth over Rs 200 cr crore for senior citizens: Minister to Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: The government authorised 1.10 lakh hospital admissions worth Rs 202.96 crore for senior citizens aged 70 and above as of January 28, union minister of state for health Prataprao Jadhav informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
As of February 6, over 47 lakh eligible senior citizens had enrolled for Ayushman Vay Vandana cards, news agency PTI reported.
On October 29, 2024, the Center enhanced the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to offer six crore elderly citizens from 4.5 crore families, regardless of socio-economic background, free treatment benefits of up to Rs 5 lakh annually.
Enrollment is application-based, with multiple registration options, including the Ayushman mobile app, a web portal (beneficiary.nha.gov.in), and visits to empanelled hospitals or Common Service Centres to create cards.
Jadhav stated that the AB-PMJAY employs a comprehensive outreach strategy, particularly in rural and backward areas to enhance awareness and empower its beneficicaries. State health agencies are also leveraging frontline workers such as ASHAs, AWWs, and VLEs to educate citizens.
The National Health Authority (NHA) has defined the Health Benefit Package (HBP) covering 1,961 procedures across 27 medical specialties, including general medicine, surgery, cardiology, and oncology.
Treatments like dialysis, ischemic stroke care, hypertension management, and joint replacements are available for eligible senior citizens.
States have the flexibility to tailor benefit packages to local needs. Additionally, hospitals with entry level NABH accreditation receive incentives of 10-15 per cent above package rates.
While institutions that provide post-graduate medical education receive an additional 10 per cent incentive over the base rate of Health Benefit Package (HBP) master rates, the union minister stated.