Senior citizens will be the focus of the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Aarogya Yojna (RGJAY) after the State signs a fresh MoU with an insurance firm in November 2016. Among the proposed changes in the scheme, which was launched in a phased manner three years ago, will be addition and deletion of procedures based on their demand.
Hip and knee replacement surgeries, and certain important paediatric and cardiac procedures are among the procedures that will be added. “More hospitals will also be empanelled, particularly to reach out to people in the remotest parts of the State, and new procedures will be adopted,” Mahendra Warbhuvan, deputy CEO of RGJAY, told The Hindu .
He said an effort will also be made to create better awareness on the scheme.
Officials involved in making the proposed changes said procedures that had a poor uptake will be dropped or and revised, and the condition of a minimum 30 beds for a hospital to get empanelled could be modified, to accommodate smaller hospitals in the interiors. “We are also including physiotherapy in the list of covered medical treatments, which is also needed given that hip and knee replacement surgeries are being proposed to be included in the revised plan,” said an official. Significantly, congenital heart diseases and thallasaemia are being added to the list.
Officials at RGJAY said they have three years’ experience and will be going by that to make the changes. In all, about 130 procedures will be dropped and 270 procedures added.
Among the procedures that will be deleted include the cleft lip and head and neck surgeries. “Some procedures that have been removed were outdated,” said an official, adding that the revisions were being made keeping in mind both the demand for procedures and their importance as well.
The RGJAY was launched in July 2012 by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government and is aimed at providing cashless treatment to families with an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. Around 470 private and 77 public hospitals have been empanelled under the scheme. So far, 7.27 lakh surgeries have been performed under the scheme, of which 1.82 lakh procedures were performed in government hospitals.
Hip and knee replacement surgeries among the procedures to be added
