Digital Certification for Empanelled Hospitals

The National Health Authority (NHA) which is the implementation agency of Ayushman Bharat has inked an agreement with the Quality Council of India for launching a joint initiative of digital certification for empanelled hospitals to improve the quality of healthcare system in the country.

Certification for Empanelled Hospitals

• The MoU seeks to ensure a simple, swift, transparent and paperless mechanism for encouraging the hospitals to apply for certification.
• There will be three levels of AB-PMJAY quality certifications viz. Bronze, Silver and Gold with Gold being the highest level under this initiative.
• Since the treatment rates are fixed and health care providers have been identified, high-quality treatment becomes a prime concern under the Ayushman Bharat.
• Therefore certification of the healthcare providers is seen as the right approach to ensure the quality treatment for beneficiaries under the scheme.

The NHA plans to incentivise the certified hospitals with higher reimbursement rates so that more hospitals apply for certification.

Ayushman Bharat

Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is the flagship government scheme which provides a cover of up to Rs five lakh per family every year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to over 10.74 crore vulnerable entitled families which comes down to around approximately 50 crore beneficiaries.

The PM-JAY provides 1,393 health benefit packages with defined rates through cashless and paperless services for the beneficiary at the point of service.