NHA, Google collaborate to strengthen implementation of Ayushman Bharat

New Delhi: The National Health Authority (NHA), the apex body responsible for implementing the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, has signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Google to collaborate and strengthen the implementation of the programme, an official statement said on Friday.

The two organisations will be working closely to explore various use cases for increasing process efficiencies in day-to-day applications.

Google will also support the NHA in improving Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana's digital presence and showcasing relevant content to 50 crore entitled beneficiaries.

Furthermore, Google shall help provide training and support to NHA personnel to build on digital skills. The collaboration will seek to bolster PM-JAY’s objective of reaching the poor and vulnerable, reducing their high out-of-pocket health expenditure, and improving access to quality healthcare, the statement said.

Speaking on the alliance with Google, Dr Indu Bhushan, CEO NHA, said, "Robust technology is the mainstay of PM-JAY. In various areas such as fraud prevention and detection, claim approvals, the use of technology can help reduce the turnaround time and aiding faster closure of processes will enable the states to implement the scheme more effectively."

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"We look forward to collaborating with Google to improve our online presence," Bhushan said.

Talking about the partnership, Chetan Krishnaswamy, Director - Public Policy, at Google India and South Asia, said, "We are delighted to collaborate with the National Health Authority to strengthen its online presence, and drive digital training programmes for the teams and also explore the best possible ways to extend the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to the citizens. With the advancements in technologies like machine learning, the teams will also explore the best solutions that can help the NHA to efficiently scale the process of PM-JAY."

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