Even pensioners availed benefits under PMJAY in many states: CAG report

In Himachal Pradesh, it was revealed that 22 pensioners were included as beneficiaries and had availed treatment under the scheme costing Rs 3.33 lakh.

NEW DELHI: The CAG has detected that 1,07,040 pensioners and their kin were included as beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PM-JAY) scheme in many states including Tamil Nadu. 

Ineligible households were found registered as PMJAY beneficiaries and had availed the benefits ranging between Rs 0.12 lakh to Rs 22.44 crore under the scheme, said the audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. “In the absence of adequate validation controls, errors were noticed in beneficiary database i.e., invalid names, unrealistic date of birth, duplicate PMJAY IDs, unrealistic size of family members in a household etc,” the report said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s audit has noted that 1,558 pensioners were included as beneficiaries in Karnataka under the scheme and that they availed treatments under the scheme costing Rs 4.65 crore.

The audit was conducted by doing a comparison of the pension database of the state governments and the database of the PM-JAY scheme.

114 pensioners were included as beneficiaries under the scheme in Haryana and availed of treatment under the scheme costing Rs 26.81 lakh.

In Chandigarh, the CAG has noted that 34 government pensioners and 68 members from their families were included as beneficiaries and that two of them had availed treatment under the scheme at a cost of Rs 11.700.

In Himachal Pradesh, it was revealed that 22 pensioners were included as beneficiaries and had availed treatment under the scheme costing Rs 3.33 lakh.

The CAG in its report in a very categorical way has stated that “delayed action in weeding out the ineligible beneficiaries resulted in ineligible persons availing benefits of the scheme and excess payments of premiums to insurance companies.”

The report further added that upon being informed about these discrepancies, the National Health Authority (NHA) stated that it is developing an SOP for the state to ensure the removal of ineligible persons including pensioners from the list of beneficiaries under the scheme. 

Nos of pensioners included in PM-JAY

• Tamil Nadu-1, 07,040
• Karnataka-1,558
• Chandigarh-34
• Haryana-114
• Himachal Pradesh-22