New Delhi, Oct 5 (FN Agency) The union health ministry has added medical management package for the black fungus under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) after the National Health Authority (NHA) revised the Health Benefit Package (HBP) on Tuesday. “In the revised version of Health Benefit Package (HBP 2.2), rates of some health packages have been increased by 20 per cent to 400 per cent under PM-JAY. Around, 400 procedure rates have been revised and one new additional medical management package related to black fungus have also been added,” the NHA said in a statement. According to the NHA, rate revision has been done in the following categories: (i) radiation oncology procedures, (ii) Medical Management procedures like the procedure for dengue, acute febrile illness etc, (iii) surgical package treatment for black fungus, (iv) other procedures like Right/left heart catheterization, PDA closure, Arthrodesis, Cholecystectomy, appendicectomy etc. Besides, under medical management procedures, rates for ICU with ventilator has been revised by 100 per cent, rates for ICU without ventilator by 136 per cent, rates for HDU has been revised by 22 per cent while prices for routine ward has been revised by 17 per cent.
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, said the revised HBP will enable the empanelled hospitals to provide better healthcare services to beneficiaries under AB PM-JAY. “I am glad that the revised version of Health Benefit Packages (HBP 2.2) will strengthen the empanelled hospitals to provide better healthcare services to the beneficiaries under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY. The revised packages for oncology will enhance cancer care for the beneficiaries in the country. The addition of new packages related to black fungus will be a huge relief. o the beneficiaries. I am sure that the rationalised HBP will further improve the uptake of scheme in private hospitals leading to reduced Out-of-Pocket Expenditure,” he added. The HBP 2.2 is expected to be rolled out from November 2021. Dr RS Sharma, CEO, NHA, said the regular rates of the packages are being revised to provide better healthcare services.
“Since the inception of the AB PM-JAY scheme, new packages have been added to cover more disease conditions and regular rates of the packages are being revised to provide better healthcare services. These changes are necessitated to ensure effective implementation of the scheme and will be made in the Transaction Management System (TMS) to ensure that there are no challenges in portability. State Health Agencies (SHAs) currently implementing any of the previous versions of HBP can now accept and implement the latest version of HBP 2.2,” he added. Currently, the AB PM-JAY has 1669 treatment procedures out of which 1080 are surgical, 588 medical and one unspecified package.