CSCs to register Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries

Common Service Centre today inked an agreement with National Health Accounts to implement the health protection programme Ayushman Bharat through its three lakh centres across the country.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed in the presence of Minister for IT and Law Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda.

Registration of beneficiaries under the health scheme will be done through CSCs.

Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (about 50 crore beneficiaries), providing coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh (per family per year) for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

"CSCs efforts in Ayushman Bharat would be a game changer in our country...Today, I am very happy that CSC VLEs (village level entrepreneurs) are going to be the soldiers of healthcare - Ayushman Bharat in India. The identity and registrations of beneficiaries would be done through CSCs," Prasad said at a conference.

The CSCs have become a major instrument of change in rural India, the minister noted.

Speaking on the occasion, Nadda said, "Today, the dream of Digital India is getting big leap with Ayushman Bharat. In Ayushman Bharat, 50 crore people would get benefitted with this revolutionary healthcare scheme".

Stating that the three lakh CSCs would contribute, in a big way, to the implementation of the scheme, he exuded confidence that these centres will prove to be a big milestone in the access of universal healthcare in the country.

Nadda also asked the CSC to give a presentation on how their tele medicine initiative could be further strengthened with participation of central government health facilities.

The CSCs currently act as access points for delivery of a slew of digital services in over 2.10 lakh gram panchayats, and are run by three lakh village level entrepreneurs.

Earlier this month, special purpose vehicle of CSC and HDFC Bank had signed an agreement, as part of which village-level entrepreneurs who run these centres in the country will operate as banking correspondents of HDFC Bank.

The move to rope-in CSC's Village Level Entrepreneurs as banking correspondents will help HDFC Bank to extend various financial services in its bouquet, to people particularly in rural areas. These services include opening of eKYC savings bank account, fixed deposits, remittances and fund transfer, cash withdrawal using Aadhaar enabled payment system, balance enquiry, among others.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)