India courts private hospitals to boost 'Modicare' insurance programme
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2022
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
India courts private hospitals to boost 'Modicare' insurance programme

World+Biz

Reuters
24 November, 2019, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 24 November, 2019, 02:52 pm

Related News

  • Indian police charge 30 anti-Vedanta protesters over deadly 2018 demonstration
  • India's power grid creaks under hybrid work model, heatwave
  • JPMorgan downgrades India's IT sector as Covid boom fades
  • India retains top spot as fastest-growing economy: UN
  • Sundarban tigers travelling to West Bengal in search of mates

India courts private hospitals to boost 'Modicare' insurance programme

The “Modicare” programme offers families health cover of up to 500,000 rupees ($7,000) a year for serious ailments

Reuters
24 November, 2019, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 24 November, 2019, 02:52 pm
Indu Bhushan, CEO of India's National Health Authority (NHA), poses for a picture inside his office after an interview with Reuters in New Delhi, India, November 21, 2019/ Reuters
Indu Bhushan, CEO of India's National Health Authority (NHA), poses for a picture inside his office after an interview with Reuters in New Delhi, India, November 21, 2019/ Reuters

India will offer incentives to private hospitals to take part in the government's health insurance programme, potentially the biggest of its kind in the world, a senior government official told Reuters.

Launched last year, the scheme is critical to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans to reform the country's health system, where private healthcare is too expensive for most people and public hospitals are overburdened and often dilapidated.

The "Modicare" programme offers families health cover of up to 500,000 rupees ($7,000) a year for serious ailments - a significant amount by Indian standards - but the scheme has struggled to gain traction.

India has so far registered about 20% of the eligible 500 million people, due to lack of public awareness of the scheme and low private sector participation, said Indu Bhushan, CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), which runs the programme.

"There is a challenge of creating awareness and building the required infrastructure," Bhushan said in an interview. "We need to work more on awareness ... give us time."

Under the programme, more than 6 million people have so far received treatment free of charge, he said.

Currently, 60% of the approximately 20,000 hospitals registered under the programme are in the private sector, Bhushan said, adding that increasing their participation was critical to the scheme's success.

Private hospitals, however, are concerned about costs. A report by Indian lobby group FICCI and consultants EY said in August that private hospitals complained that treatment rates offered by the NHA covered only 40-80% of their costs.

Bhushan said his agency was in talks with hospitals, industry groups and service providers and was open to revising rates, even though he had last month increased payments offered to hospitals for some treatments.

"We are hoping that private sector would come. If rates are not viable, private sector will not come," he said.

NHA's budget spending also reflects the slow uptake of the scheme. The health agency will spend only 50-55 billion rupees ($766 million) of the allocated 62 billion rupees in the current fiscal year that ends in March, said Bhushan.

In order to expand the scheme more swiftly, however, the NHA was likely to seek at least 80 billion rupees for next year, 30% more than its current annual budget, a senior government source said.

"In the next one year, the scheme should be quite well-known across the country," Bhushan said.

India / Modicare

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Infographic: TBS
    Businesses reel under soaring costs
  • Photo: Mumit M/TBS
    What delays infrastructure projects in Bangladesh?
  • What needs to be done now?
    What needs to be done now?

MOST VIEWED

  • View of a damaged building after it was struck, by what was reported to be an air strike, during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bakhmut, Donetsk Region, Ukraine, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released May 19, 2022 Donetsk Region Police/Handout via REUTERS
    Ukraine says Russian attacks on Donbas intensifying
  • A Ukrainian flag, a larger flag planted amid 500 smaller Ukrainian flags in a park, flies in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, US, March 14, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
    Ukraine says it gets $530 mln in US, UK grants from World Bank fund
  • A model of the natural gas pipeline is seen in front of displayed German and Russian flag colours in this illustration taken April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
    Fearing Russian cutoff, German industry braces for gas rations race
  • A man walks past a Nationwide Building Society in London, Britain, May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
    Britain's Nationwide annual profit nearly doubles
  • A student monk representing Inter University Students Federation shouts slogans during an anti government protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, 19 May 2022. Sri Lankans have been protesting for more than a month demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, holding him responsible for the country's worst economic crisis in recent memory. Photo: AP
    Sri Lanka closes schools, limits work amid fuel shortage
  • SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk attends a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US January 19, 2020.
    Musk denies he sexually harassed flight attendant on private jet

Related News

  • Indian police charge 30 anti-Vedanta protesters over deadly 2018 demonstration
  • India's power grid creaks under hybrid work model, heatwave
  • JPMorgan downgrades India's IT sector as Covid boom fades
  • India retains top spot as fastest-growing economy: UN
  • Sundarban tigers travelling to West Bengal in search of mates

Features

Professor Mustafizur Rahman. Illustration: TBS

Project delays and escalating costs are driven by frequent revisions and lack of good governance

1h | Panorama
Photo: Mumit M/TBS

What delays infrastructure projects in Bangladesh?

2h | Panorama
Foods that you should never put in the refrigerator

Foods that you should never put in the refrigerator

2h | Food
Beef Kunafa: A treat for beef and cheese lovers

Beef Kunafa: A treat for beef and cheese lovers

3h | Food

More Videos from TBS

Gazipur restaurant that serves 150 food items

Gazipur restaurant that serves 150 food items

3h | Videos
How to prepare for a job

How to prepare for a job

4h | Videos
Putin's strategies to face Nato

Putin's strategies to face Nato

15h | Videos
How many countries have nuclear weapons and how many are there?

How many countries have nuclear weapons and how many are there?

16h | Videos

Most Read

1
Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
Bangladesh

Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge

2
Representative Photo: Pixabay.
Bangladesh

Microplastics found in 5 local sugar brands

3
Mushfiq Mobarak. Photo: Noor-A-Alam
Panorama

Meet the Yale professor who anchors his research in Bangladesh and scales up interventions globally

4
A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Banking

Dollar hits Tk100 mark in open market

5
The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter
Industry

The story of Bangladesh becoming a major bicycle exporter

6
PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire
Crime

PK Halder: How a scamster rose from humble beginnings to a Tk11,000cr empire

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab