New Delhi. After the hospitals threatened to stop treatment under Ayushman Bharat if the money for treatment is not received, the Punjab government has started trying to continue its smooth functioning. In this regard, several rounds of meetings have been held between the officials of the Punjab government and the Union Health Ministry, in which the necessary compliance of rules for releasing the amount of central assistance under the scheme has been discussed in detail.

Similarly, Odisha, which has been out of the scheme till now, has also started trying to join Ayushman Bharat. A senior official of the Health Ministry said that 60 percent of the expenditure under the Ayushman Bharat scheme has to be paid by the central government and 40 percent by the state government.

Punjab government did not submit the report of Ayushman Bharat scheme

For hilly states, this amount is 90 percent and 10 percent. It is the responsibility of the state government to pay the cost of treatment to the hospitals. According to the rules, it is mandatory for the state government to submit an audit report of the entire expenditure to get the central assistance amount. The Punjab government had not submitted the audit report of the Ayushman Bharat scheme for the last several years. The senior official said that recently Punjab has submitted the audit report of 2020-21 and has assured to submit the further audit report soon. He said that the amount of central assistance will be released as soon as the audit report is received.

Odisha, which was out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme during the Naveen Patnaik government, has started making efforts to join it as soon as the BJP government was formed. For this, talks are going on between the officials of Odisha and the Central Health Ministry. The senior official said that Odisha already has its own scheme for free treatment of people. The same scheme has to be linked to Ayushman Bharat.

West Bengal will be out of this scheme

Work has begun on finding technical solutions to integrate both the portals. The cost of treatment up to Rs 5 lakh for families covered under Ayushman Bharat will be borne under the scheme. After Odisha joins Ayushman Bharat, only Delhi and West Bengal will remain out of this scheme.