Half a crore hospital treatments have been provided under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the flagship health assurance scheme of the Government of India, in just over a year. There are 9 hospital admissions every minute across India, in the first year.

PM-JAY was launched by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on September 23, last year. The scheme has now crossed 50 lakh treatments mark. These secondary and tertiary level treatments worth Rs. 7,901 crores have been carried out in the 32 States and Union Territories implementing the scheme. More than 60% of the amount spent has been on tertiary care. Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Radiation Oncology, Cardio-thoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Urology have emerged as the top tertiary specialities.

Lauding the progress of the scheme, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare said, “The Ayushman Bharat family is growing by leaps and bounds. In just over one year, under PM-JAY more than 50 lakh treatments have been availed by beneficiaries across the country. But, this is just the beginning for this path-breaking scheme. We are grateful to our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji for his visionary leadership. The successful implementation of this scheme will help us take forward Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s vision of “Antyodaya” – the upliftment of the last man, such that this deprived man gets the benefits of development. The aim of our government is to make Bharat “Rog mukt and Ayushmaan!”

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA said, “50 lakh hospital treatments is a significant  milestone for PM-JAY, but there is a long journey ahead. The scheme will continue to focus on reducing catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure, improving access to quality health care and meeting the unmet need of the population for hospitalization care, so that we move towards the vision of Universal Health Coverage. Empowering the poorest people in the country with the assurance of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is a major area of focus for us.”

PM-JAY is a partnership of public and private sector health systems. The 50 lakh hospital admissions have taken place in the public and empanelled private hospitals that provide care to the beneficiaries under the scheme. To date, 18,486 hospitals have been empanelled across India. In the first year, 53% of the empanelled hospitals are private, especially multi-specialty hospitals. So far, the scheme has been implemented in 32 States and Union Territories, and there are more than 50,000 portability cases, wherein migrant and travelling eligible Indians have availed their treatment outside their home states.