PM likely to announce launch of Ayushman Bharat-NHPS on I-Day

MODI’s I-DAY SPEECH TO BE STREAMED LIVE ON GOOGLE, YOUTUBE

15/08/2018

NEW DELHI, Aug 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce the launch of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS) on a pilot basis in some states tomorrow on the occasion of Independence Day, with the full-scale roll-out of his pet project expected in September end, sources said.
The ambitious Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10 crore poor families.
The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers' families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest SECC data, and will cover around 50 crore people.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will talk about the scheme in his Independence Day speech and is also likely to announce its launch on a pilot basis in some states tomorrow," a government official said.
While Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi are yet to come on board, Odisha has refused to be a part of the scheme, the official said.
According to the official, as many as 22 states have preferred to run the scheme on "trust model".
The Centre has allocated about Rs 10,000 crore for the project, which is claimed to be the world's largest government funded healthcare insurance programme. It is yet to release its share of the funds to the states.
The Union health ministry has launched a formal process to empanel public and private hospitals to achieve universal health coverage under the programme.
The Centre was simultaneously carrying out beneficiary identification. Under the process, 80 per cent of beneficiaries, based on the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) data in the rural and the urban areas, have been identified.
The health ministry has included 1,354 packages in the scheme under which treatment for coronary bypass, knee replacements and stenting among others would be provided at 15-20 per cent cheaper rates than the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).
Each empanelled hospital will have an 'Ayushman Mitra' to assist patients and will coordinate with beneficiaries and the hospital. They will run a help desk, check documents to verify the eligibility and enrolment to the scheme," the official said.
Also, all the beneficiaries will be given letters having QR codes which will be scanned and a demographic authentication conducted for identification and to verify his or her eligibility to avail the benefits of the scheme.
Further, the government recently clarified that the NABH is not mandatory for the hospitals to get empanelled under the scheme. However, hospitals with NABH/NQAS accreditation can be incentivised for higher package rates subject to procedure and costing guidelines.
Also, the basic empanelment criteria allows empanelment of a hospital with a minimum of 10 beds, with the flexibility provided to the states to further relax this if required.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech will be available on the Google homepage with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati tying up with the American tech giant for livestreaming the event.
Doordarshan's coverage of Independence Day celebrations tomorrow will open with a patriotic song recorded by singer composer Shankar Mahadevan, and in a first, anchors will present the event from the ramparts of Red Fort.
"Apart from what we normally do, which is going live on TV and livestreaming on Youtube and so on, we will also have the livestream available on the Google search home page as well," Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati told PTI.
"When people are searching for anything to do with Independence Day, the livestream will appear on their page on the top. This will dramatically increase the visibility and access to the livestream," he said.
This facility was also used to telecast the inauguration ceremony of US President Donald Trump.
"Livestreming has now been going on for a few years. Last year it was a million plus views, Republic Day was 3-4 million views. That is the general trend. This will take it to the next level altogether," he said.
Asked if the tie-up with Google was part of Prasar Bharati's efforts to reach out to younger people, Vempati said the dominant sentiment about Doordarshan was nostalgia. With the younger generation having no real brand experience of Doordarshan, this was one way of making them familiar with it, he said.
"We have dramatically increased our digital presence. We have now 37 plus active Youtube channels which are uploading content from across the country, different languages, different regions.
"We have 250 plus Twitter handles across the network of all our regional news stations, All India Radio stations, Doordarshan Kendras. All of them are actively uploading on social media. This is part of our broader effort for a digital connect," the Prasar Bharati CEO said.
The Prime Minister's speech will be aired on All India Radio in about 20 different languages through the day, he said.
Vempati said a new version of the All India Radio news android application has also been launched which not only has the news bulletin in all the 20 plus languages and the livestream of the various All India Radio stations, but also has AIR's external services.

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