MP: Police-health department raid shows PMJAY beneficiaries put up in hotel instead of hospital

JABALPUR: A major irregularity was allegedly unearthed in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh on Friday after 70 people availing benefits of the Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) were found in a hotel instead of being admitted in an adjoining hospital, a police official said.

The raid was conducted in the evening by a joint team of the local police and the health department and these 70 people with Ayushman Bharat cards were in Hotel Vega though, as per records, they were admitted in Central India Kidney Hospital for treatment, Additional Superintendent of Police Gopal Khandel told reporters.

"The hotel is situated next to the kidney hospital. We received a tip off the hospital was paying money to Ayushman Bharat card holders to get admitted. The health department was alerted after which a raid was conducted on the hotel," Khandel said.

A probe into the admissions in the hospital was underway and efforts were on to unravel other aspects of this irregularity, he added.

Sources said the hotel and hospital are owned by the same person.

Dubbed the world's largest government-funded healthcare programme on its launch in September 2018, the PMJAY seeks to provide cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.