Health dept offering services under CMAAY, PMJAY to Covid patients

ITANAGAR, 29 Jul: The health department is offering its services under the Chief Minister Arogya Arunachal Yojana (CMAAY) and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) to Covid-19 patients admitted in dedicated Covid hospitals (DCH) and dedicated Covid health centres (DCHC) in the state.

At present, all the DCHs and DCHCs are treating patients free of cost.

“Covid-19 is not going away easily. We are planning for a long battle and therefore we need to financially equip our DCHs and DCHCs. Keeping this in view, it has been decided to cover them under the CMAAY and the PMJAY,” informed CMAAY CEO Dr Nabam Peter.

In this regard, a medical coordinator will be nominated by the Covid centres as a ‘single point of contact’ to coordinate and facilitate registration of Covid positive patients, admission into Covid centres, and sending all necessary documentation via WhatsApp till the discharge of the patient, and claim settlement.

The actual processing, including receiving documents and processing ‘pre-auth and claim’, will be done by a dedicated team of doctors in the programme management unit of the Chief Minister Arogya Arunachal Society, also called the State Health Agency.

Claims shall be settled on a per-day basis, based on the category of services provided, such as normal bed, isolation bed with oxygen support, and ICU beds.

The package will be inclusive of the entire treatment and management of Covid positive patients during the period of hospitalization, which includes isolation bed charges, consultation fees, tests, diet charges, nursing charges, medicines, PPE kits, necessary gear usage, consumables and any other treatment within the period of hospitalization.

“Pre- or post-hospitalization charges will not be applicable to these packages, and these packages are strictly meant for hospitalization of Covid-19 positive patients and not for outpatient treatment,” said Dr Peter.

“In case patients in DCH require additional treatment in the form of a surgical procedure or haemodialysis, along with the base package, the DCH can do so by blocking the most relevant additional package,” he said.

The CMAAY and the PMJAY covers the APST and non-APST residents of Changlang, Lohit and Namsai possessing residence certificates, and state government employees and their dependents.