Exploring the challenges faced in implementing Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in rural areas.
In 2020, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana was launched by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate the ten millionth beneficiary of the Ayushman Bharat Mission. The Ayushman Bharat Mission comprises two different schemes. First is the PMJAy scheme, which is a health insurance scheme that aims at providing financial aid to the poor and vulnerable families of the country. The primary purpose of the PMJAY scheme is to provide secondary and tertiary care in private and government healthcare facilities and reduce out-of-pocket expenditures whenever they go for any medical visit or during emergency medical situations.
A few changes and modifications have been made to the beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Like, the PMJAY scheme also covers the testing and treating the different aspects of covid 19. However, several medical expenses are covered under the PMJAY scheme and benefit the poor.
The registration and enrolment procedure of the PMJAY scheme is very straightforward, and users can easily register themselves. However, despite offering multiple benefits under the scheme for the lower-class people living in rural areas, some complications still threaten the people and the government. The pmjay card download procedure is straightforward and aims to provide multiple benefits to the poor section of people.
The primary challenge in implementing the PMJAY scheme in rural areas is
– Poor accessibility of quality healthcare: Rural residents have limited or no access to quality healthcare services. Thus, ensuring they receive the necessary medical care and treatment is difficult.
– Limited Awareness of the Scheme: Most rural residents are unaware of the PMJAY scheme due to a lack of awareness campaigns and initiatives. This makes it difficult for them to take advantage of the scheme.
– Limited or No Medical Facilities: Many rural areas do not have any medical facilities, or the medical facilities that are present are not well-equipped to handle emergencies. This makes it difficult for patients to receive timely medical attention.
– Poor Claiming Process: Most rural residents lack the documents or information to claim their benefits under the PMJAY scheme. This makes it difficult for them to claim the benefits they are entitled to.
– Limited or No Financial Assistance: Most rural residents cannot pay for medical care and treatment due to a lack of financial resources. They also have limited access to financial assistance that could help them cover the costs of their medical needs.
Are there any exclusion errors in the PMJAY mission?
The PMJAY scheme launched by the prime minister of India aims to reach the poorest of the poor and provide them with secondary and tertiary medical treatments at the lowest possible rates. There have been various issues that the experts, like the non-transparent mode of data collection, have pointed out. Similarly, the population numbers have changed over the years, and the census data remains outdated. Therefore, better estimates should be used for the PMJAY mission.
The empanelment of the PMJAY needs to pick up the pace.
The hospitals must enrol online to be empanelled into the PMJAY scheme. Although the number of empanelments has increased yearly in every state, some districts and states still lag. Although the portability feature of the scheme is helpful for those who live far away from home and close to an empanelled hospital, it is tough to see people in emergencies travelling to different states for treatments under the PMJAY scheme in the hospitals which are empanelled under the scheme.
Who pays for the healthcare scheme?
In India, the patients or their immediate families cover most patient healthcare expenditures. By design, the PMJAY scheme excludes the treatments under outpatient care. For situations that include only hospitalization, outpatient care under the PMJA scheme is available only for 15 days after hospitalization. However, in India, the number of outpatient cases is far higher than the number of hospitalization cases. This means that in most cases, the PMJAY scheme is unavailable, which is yet another challenge for those enrolled under this scheme.
Information asymmetry is another challenge of the PMJAY scheme.
Information asymmetry in the PMJAY system refers to a process where one person in a transaction procedure possesses more information than the other party. One major problem in the PMJAY financial healthcare system is the presence of information asymmetry between the patients and the doctors. Therefore, substantial imbalances always lie in the PMJAY healthcare system. But, it is also essential to remember that the health insurance systems take time to grow and improve. Thus, the system must keep feedback loops among the stakeholders to ensure the proper functioning of the PNJAY financial healthcare system.
Several challenges are yet to be overcome by this system. However, addressing them is very important, and finding the places where correction is needed and doing them correctly will take India on the right path of healthcare system digitization.
These are some of the issues that create challenges for the PMJAY scheme. The Indian government is trying to address these problems, and the PMJAY scheme strives to become more efficient. However, it is essential to understand that government reforms are progressive processes, and issues may take some time to resolve. The Indian government and its citizens must continually work together to provide quality healthcare to all.
It is also essential that the government of India and the PMJAY scheme ensure that all sections of society are included in its healthcare mission. This will ensure everyone has access to quality healthcare and nobody is deprived of their right to proper medical care. Once this is accomplished, the PMJAY scheme can offer better and more reliable services.
Final Words
As the healthcare digitization system of India continues to grow with the help of the National DIgital Health Mission (NDHM), the developers must also take responsibility for keeping the system updated by changing minor things. With the pmjay card, many lower-class people from rural areas can take advantage of going to private and government hospitals during medical emergencies. But, you must ensure that the hospital you plan to visit is enabled under the pmjay scheme.
However, there are still several challenges faced by the healthcare system, like some of the hospitals are not yet enrolled. So, all these issues must be resolved soon to provide better healthcare facilities to the users of India, especially for the poor people who face challenges in getting proper medical treatments during emergencies.