Against the target of 15,000 of HWC in year 1, a total of 17,149 AB-HWCs were made functional by 31 March 2019 [30]. Cumulative target of 40,000 HWCs was set up for 31 March 2020. There was slow-down in setting up HWCs in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic and total of 38,595 HWCs were operational by 31 March 2020. The cumulative target is 70,000 HWCs by 31 March 2021, then 110,000 by 31 March 2022 and 150,000 by 31 December 2022. Alongside, all UPHC across India were to be converted to HWCs by March 2020 [1]. Official data on utilization of services from HWCs was available till 22 Sept 2019, when nearly 21,000 AB-HWCs were operational which had reported a foot-fall of 17 million. In these Centres 950,000 yoga sessions were conducted; 7 million people received treatment for hypertension and 3.1 million for diabetes mellitus, Sixteen million beneficiaries received essential medicines and 4.9 million received free essential diagnostics [1, 32]. The second component of AB-PMJAY was launched on 23 Sept 2018 and progress on this component is summarised in Box 2 [32, 33].
Box 2 Progress under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) component of Ayushman Bharat in India [1, 32, 33]
Ayushman Bharat Program, from the time of announcement has two components. Other than Ayushman Bharat- Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC), AB-PMJAY is the second component. It has built upon the erstwhile Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), started in year 2008 in India. Even since announcement of ABP, the scheme has witnessed a few evolutions in name before settling for AB-PMJAY. It was announced as AB-National Health Protection scheme or AB-NHPS in February 2018, renamed as National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) in early March 2018 and then Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission (PM-RSSM) in third week of March 2018. In mid August 2018, it was referred as Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (PMJAA) (15 August 2018) before finally being renamed as AB-PMJAY towards the end of Aug 2018. AB-PMJAY provides health cover of up to INR 500,000 (Exchange rate in April 2020: 1 USD= approx. 75 INR) per family per year on floater basis; covers 3-day pre-hospitalization and 15 d post hospitalization; expenses on medicines, follow up and diagnostics. One thousand three hundred ninety three procedures in 24 specialties were part of the scheme, as on October 2019. There is no cap on family size, age or gender, cashless and paperless treatment for beneficiaries at point of care. Benefits are portable across the country in the empaneled hospitals.
The scheme was announced in Union Budget of India on 1 February 2018; Cabinet approval was received on 21 March 2018; National Health Agency got incorporated on 11 May 2018; AB-PMJAY was formally launched on 23 September 2018, from Ranchi, Jharkhand. On completion of 100 d of launch on 2 January 2019; National Health Authority or NHA was formed.
At 1 y of completion of AB-PMJAY on 22 Sept 2019; a total of 32 states of 36 states/UT were implementing the scheme. One hundred and three million e-cards were issued. There were 18,236 hospitals empaneled [8,571 (47%) public and 9,665 (53%) private] and there were 4.65 million total hospital admissions with 2.18 million (47%) in govt. and 2.47 million (53%) in private facilities. The total treatment equal to Indian Rupee (INR) 7,490 Cr (US$ 1.07 billion) was provided, which included INR 2,846 Cr (38%) in Public and INR 4,644 Cr (62%) in private sector facilities.