ESCI to cover India in its health insurance scheme ESI scheme by year-end

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) on Sunday decided its health insurance scheme ESI will be implemented throughout the country by the end of 2022.

Presently, the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Scheme is fully implemented in 443 districts and partially implemented in 153 districts. A total of 148 districts are not covered under the ESI Scheme.

The ESIC, under the chairmanship of Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav, in its 188th meeting held on Sunday has taken significant decisions to augment the medical care and service delivery mechanism across the country, a labour ministry statement said.

It has been decided that the ESI Scheme will be implemented in the entire country by the end of 2022, it added.

By the end of the year, the districts which are partially covered and not covered under the scheme will be fully brought under the ambit of the ESI Scheme, the statement said.

The medical care services will be provided through establishing new DCBOs (dispensary cum branch offices), by empanelling mIMP (Modified Insurance Medical Practitioner) and tie-up hospitals of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).

Besides, the ESIC has decided to set up 23 new 100-bedded hospitals across the country.

These include six hospitals in Maharashtra at Palghar, Satara, Pen, Jalgaon, Chakan and Panvel; four in Haryana at Hisar, Sonepat, Ambala and Rohatak; two hospitals each in Tamil Nadu (at Chengalpattu and Erode), Uttar Pradesh (Moradabad and Gorakhpur) and Karnataka (Tumkur and Udupi).

ESIC will also set up one hospital each in Andhra Pradesh (Nellore), Chhattisgarh (Bilaspur), Goa (Mulgaon), Gujarat (Sanad), Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur), Odisha (Jharsuguda) and West Bengal (Kharagpur).

Besides these hospitals, five dispensaries at 62 places will also be opened.

Further, 48 dispensaries in Maharashtra, 12 dispensaries in Delhi and 2 dispensaries in Haryana will be opened.

These hospitals and dispensaries will ensure the delivery of quality medical care to the insured workers and their dependents.

To provide quality medical care, the ESIC is augmenting its infrastructure by setting up new hospitals and upgrading the existing ones, it stated.

The ESIC in its meeting also decided to allow insured workers and their family members to avail cashless medical care services through Ayushman Bharat PMJAY empanelled hospitals in all the areas where the ESI Scheme is partially implemented or to be implemented, or where existing ESIC healthcare facilities are limited.

Beneficiaries of ESI Scheme in 157 districts are already availing cashless medical care through this tie-up arrangement.

It was decided that Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Departments will be established at three ESIC Medical College and Hospitals at Sanathnagar, Faridabad and Chennai.

It will be the for the first time that such services will be made available at ESIC-owned facilities, it added.

Two cath labs at ESIC Medical College and Hospital at Sanathnagar, Telangana and Alwar, Rajasthan will be established.

Decision was also taken to upgrade the existing 200-bedded ESIC Hospital in Pune to a 500-bed facility.

The upgradation of this hospital will benefit 7 lakh workers and their family members in Pune.

Other important decisions taken in the meeting included improving the medical care services for insured workers and their family members.

The ESIC has decided to take over the state government-run ESIS Hospital, Sonagiri, Bhopal to directly run it under its administrative control.

For bridging the gap of non-availability of specialists/super specialists in state government-run ESIC Hospitals, ESIC will now engage the required professionals.