NHA looks to make Ayushman Bharat more viable

The National Health Authority (NHA) handling the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme is thinking of announcing a ‘collective bargaining’ policy for medical devices. This comes to answer condemnation that the programme requires enough viability at the specified procedure rates.

The knowledge behind this policy is to reduce purchase costs for hospitals, helping to make the procedure rates sustainable that would permit the scheme to increase to a greater number of beneficiaries.

Globally countries that are moving towards universal health coverage are in a greater situation to collectively bargain with pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. They have authority to negotiate the prices on a country level, rather than a state or the hospital level.

As of launch of PMJAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana), which is covering more about 10.74 crore (1.4 million) families, National Health Authority (NHA) is in that exclusive position to explore collective bargaining with these providers. Though, NHA will be exploring this in coordination with National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). NPPA is the nodal authority in the country specially for this purpose. NHA will also be organizing industry-wide consultations to enhance and revise the prices of drugs, implants and medical devices.

In the last two years the NPPA has pressed medical device makers to cut prices of high value devices like stents and knee implants, which has led to a diplomatic tussle between India and United States.

Ayushman Bharat offers insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to a low-income family of five and includes 1,350 medical procedures. Ever since its launch a year ago, about 6 million people have been beneficiaries of the scheme, giving to the NHA. NHA is seeking to make the rates workable by reducing device procurement costs, which form a big proportion of the overall package expenses.

The offer proposes hospitals make their purchases for patients covered under this scheme through the government e-market place (GEM) where the tender obtaining guidelines will look at the best available quotations of price and quality standards. The department of health research has been asked to make a list of devices most commonly procured by hospitals.

Ai-MeD (Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices) on this policy has a review that notwithstanding the government offering a 15 per cent price benefit to hospitals that are NABH accredited, the package rates under Ayushman Bharat is not feasible, forcing hospitals to opt out of treating patients under the scheme.

So, if the scheme needs to benefit the people, it must first look into reducing the costs, maintaining device quality, and giving incentives to the Make in India programme.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.