Take number of Ayushman Bharat Gold Cards at least par with Aadhar Cards in JK: CS

Srinagar : Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta on Thursday impressed upon the officers of the Health Department to make concerted efforts to take the number of Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY (Gold Cards) at par with that of Aadhar Cards in J&K.
Dr Mehta was speaking in the 7th Governing Council Meeting of State Health Agency (SHA) here which besides the Secretary Health was attended by Principal Secretary, Finance; Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Secretary, Labour & Employment; CEO, SHA; Secretary in RDD; Principal, GMC Srinagar/Jammu; Director General, Codes; Director Health Kashmir/Jammu and others concerned.
During the meeting, Dr Mehta emphasised on running campaigns in the educational institutions and government offices for saturating the coverage of whole population under the scheme. He directed for dedicating a helpline to assist the general public in availing this benefit.
In order to decongest the public health institutions and shorten the waiting period for general public for appointments, the Chief Secretary asked for creation of online appointment management system for providing time slots each patients. He also directed creating other online services.
He observed that the public should be encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyle by making sports, yoga and other physical exercises part of their lives. He maintained that it is an age old adage that prevention is better than cure. He advised people to take care of their health before it worsens. He also asked for taking full advantage of the online services like e-Sanjeevani and Tele-MANAS for taking the best medical advice from the comforts of their homes instead of taking the pain of visiting hospitals to the extent possible.
Dr Mehta also stressed on taking quality certification of all the hospitals under Kayakalp. He asked for ranking all the health institutions on parameters to give window to each of them to make improvements continuously. He advised for giving due weightage to the feedback from public.
On the occasion it was given out that since the universal health coverage of the population of J&K the insurance companies had authorized treatment to the tune of Rs 1484.39 Cr at a premium of Rs 990.88 Cr. It was revealed that for all these years the cost of treatment paid in favour of patients is greater than the amount paid as premium to these companies.
It was further added that out of a total of 8,99,999 claims submitted 8,05,804 had been paid till date. It was also learned that the total of 99,86,962 eligible beneficiaries are there in the J&K out of which 82,71,870 Ayushman Gold Cards had been issued.
The meeting was also informed that most of the private hospitals are also empaneled under this scheme besides the public health institutions. It was given out that more than 400 ‘Aarogya Mitras’ have been hired to assist the general public in availing the benefits under the universal health insurance scheme.