ACCESS Health participates in the National Health Authority’s Aarogya Manthan Event

Dr. Krishna Reddy was recently invited to be a panelist for a session at Arogya Manthan, a two-day event organized by the National Health Authority to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana. The event focused on universal health coverage, co-payments, pricing, ABDM compliance, beneficiary engagement, and PMJAY’s roadmap among others.

Dr. Reddy participated in the Engaging With Providers and Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure session. The panelists discussed strategies that enhance engagement with healthcare providers and fortify the public health infrastructure within the AB-PMJAY (Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) framework, thereby elevating the program’s efficiency, accessibility, and overall impact.

Dr. Reddy offered insights from both a health system research perspective and a provider’s viewpoint, garnered over his career as a physician and a health systems researcher. A highlight of Dr. Reddy’s talk was the presentation of learnings from two crucial programs – the Aarogyasri Scheme in Andhra Pradesh and the PM-JAY experience in the state of Uttar Pradesh where the ACCESS Health team provides technical assistance to SACHIS. Drawing from these experiences, he emphasized the critical distinction between the Payer (represented by NHA & SHA) and the Provider (comprising Government Hospitals). Understanding this distinction is pivotal in ensuring the efficient delivery of healthcare services, particularly in time-sensitive cases when engaging providers is of paramount importance. Finally, Dr. Reddy underscored the urgent need to raise awareness among public providers, including teaching hospitals, regarding the benefits of adopting programs like AB-PMJAY.