Better Cancer Care, Choice In Implants To Be Given To Patients Under Ayushman Bharat, Cataract Surgery Moved Out Of Program

The National Health Authority has announced various changes under the Ayushman Bharat, among which it will be revamping the cancer care, more choices for implants in major surgeries like knee replacement, the Economic Times reports.

Ayushman Bharat is the government's health insurance scheme for the poor. The final shape to the new version of Ayushman Bharat was given by an expert committee headed by Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul after reviewing the cost of 1,300 medical packages under the scheme.

Authorities also decided to offer a choice of implants to the patients ensuring that they get to avail good quality implants during surgeries. The move comes to counter the common malpractice among the hospitals to use the cheapest possible implants.

The hospitals could conveniently get away with it in the extant system. However, the differentiated cost structure under the programme will help cover the loophole as hospitals are now required to declare the cost of separate implants.

The government has also dropped cataract surgeries from the list of treatments and medical procedures under the programme. Individuals enrolled in the programme could have availed free of cost at empanelled hospitals.

Cataract surgeries had become one of the most popular surgeries availed under the programme. However, the inability to check and contain the fraud and abuse in the grab of cataract surgeries, the same has been dropped.