-TheWire.in The Ayushman Bharat scheme provides support to the most deprived portion of India’s population and engages private insurance players, positive steps that must be welcomed. In his speech on the 72nd Independence Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked that India’s economy, once a sleeping elephant is now running. The same cannot, however be said about the healthcare system of India. This elephant is malnourished, weak, diseased and lumbering at...

-The Hindu Health protection scheme for 10.74 crore beneficiary families and 50 crore Indian citizens The healthcare sector has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement in his Independence Day address that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan, also known as Ayushman Bharat or the National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), will be launched on September 25. The government-sponsored health insurance scheme will provide free coverage of up to ?5 lakh a family a year...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The income tax department has allowed referral kickbacks paid to doctors by private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres and spending on advertisements by doctors as expenses despite such expenditure being disallowed and unethical, a parliamentary panel said on Thursday. The public accounts committee for the Union finance ministry's department of revenue has cited an audit that found that in 19 instances in eight states, income-tax officers had...

-Financial Express After presenting the Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave a name to government’s ambitious healthcare scheme Ayushmann Bharat: Modicare. He said that nobody knew whether Obamacare was successful but Modicare will become successful in every possible way. Dubbed as “world’s largest government-funded health care programme” aims to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per annum to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. While the programme...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ruled that private Delhi hospitals operating on subsidised government land will have to provide free treatment to patients belonging to economically weaker sections. The SC said that any violation of this agreement between private hospitals and the government - in the matter of how many beds have to be reserved for poor patients - will not be tolerated and it...