Ayushman Bharat: Two Cases Of Fake Health Cards Surface At AIIMS Patna, Probe On

Two patients alleged to have stolen nearly 2 lakh from the government underwent free surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna using their Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY) card, state health officials said today . . . HT, which claims it's fake, conducted its own investigation.

“Both cards are fake. We're trying to find the agencies that issue these cards and those that approve them. We collect details. Give us a little more time," said Alancrita Pandey, chief executive of Bihar Svastya Suraksha Samiti (BSSS), on Thursday evening.

This is the first scam reported by the state since the program's inception on September 23, 2018, among many other allegations, in which non-professional shoppers bypassed an Aadhar-based biometric authentication system and used fake PMJAY cards for free. said an official aware of the problem.

Avinash Kumar, 36, who works for Bukhar Nagar Parishad (a local community agency), and Ashok Kumar Singh, 58, a farmer from Bhojpur, underwent a double heart valve replacement and a stoma closure (the opening in the stomach through which feces drain). Stoma, also called colostomy closure, after inclusion in the AIIMS on May 9th and 15th.

Ashok Singh, who was suffering from cancer, died on May 22nd.

Avinash Kumar is recovering in bed 15 at the hospital's D1B ward.

“My father suffered a paralytic stroke after the operation. After the hospital changed the category of patients from 'PMJAY' to 'General' on May 19 and explained that my father's card was fake, we have already had to pay around £ 30,000 for follow-up care. How can it be a fake when now two payments worth about 1.84 lakhs have been agreed through the card? We are poor people, we have neither money nor resources," says Kumar's son Vicky Kumar, 21, who works in Assam.

Her father's name on the ration card, the photo Vicki shared with this reporter, does not match the name on Aadhar. A ration card is a requirement to become a PMJAY recipient.

Singh's 28-year-old son, Lallu Kumar, refused to provide copies of his father's ration card, saying he was sad.

"What's the point of giving copies of my dad's ration cards or trying to unlock his PMJAY card when he's dead," he said.

Kumar and Singh would have gone unnoticed had they not required funding for post-operative care. This required adding drug codes to previously approved transaction codes in PMJAY's computerized application system, a process that failed and their cards (M6NOLM5PV and M58DI7I7K) were suspended May 19-20, the official said.

Kumar was admitted to intensive care on May 10 after heart surgery.

Singh required the support of a ventilator after the ostomy was closed. He underwent two surgeries on May 17 and 20. When their condition began to deteriorate and AIIMS canceled free medical care under PMJAY, costing family members around £ 3,000 for follow-up care, they decided to leave voluntarily. His son Lallu said Singh took him home, where he died on May 22.

Working with Bihar Swastya Suraksha Samiti (BSSS), the state government's central health agency for PMJAY, and the National Health Authority (NHA), which manages the implementation of the program, New Delhi initially agreed on hospitalizations and treatments. Both patients are in AIIMS.

BSSS approved £ 2.26 lakh for Kumar's double heart valve replacement and a further £ 15,950 for the ostomy closure in Singh's case, matching the package fee under the scheme, the official said.

BSSS has now turned to the NHA for help in gathering information on the agencies that produce its cards and those that approve them.

In addition to Ayushman's partners in public and private hospitals, card-issuing agencies include more than 60,000 village-level entrepreneurs in Bihar, Executive Assistant Panchayati Raj and UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services Limited (ITSL), an NHA-operated agency. PMJ.

AIIMS did not respond to a letter from HT on Friday asking for feedback on how patients go through the Aadhar-based biometric authentication system during PMJAY enrollment.

"I received the letter and am working on it," said Dr. Gopal Krushna Pal, Managing Director of AIIMS-Patna, in response to a message from HT the same evening. Neither Dr. Pal nor the PR officer Dr. Shrikant Bharti responded to HT's reminders on Thursday.

AB PMJAY is the Prime Minister's flagship health program as well as the world's largest publicly funded health insurance program with a 60:40 split between central and state governments, providing coverage of up to 5 lakh per year for 107 secondary and tertiary hospital admissions. 4. Millions of poor and vulnerable households in India (approximately 500 million beneficiaries) based on deprivation and employment criteria according to the Socio-Economic Caste Database (SECC) 2011.

There are more than 10.8 million such families in Bihar, including about 55 million beneficiaries.

However, the state is among the lowest in terms of enrollment rate under Ayushman Bharat and has so far only issued 78 lakh cards to its beneficiaries.

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