NEW DELHI: Days ahead of the launch of the ambitious Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged officials to ensure the scheme is not tarred by fraud and pointed out that the approaching election season will mean smallest slips will be highlighted.

The Ayushman Bharat national health protection scheme (NHPS), often referred to as “Modicare”, will roll out in 12 states in the first phase beginning August 15 and will be completed by October 2.

"Take all kind of strong measures to prevent fraud and misuse of the scheme," Modi is understood to have urged officials at a high level review of the scheme’s preparedness. The PM said with elections at hand, mistakes or shortcomings are likely to be magnified and one needs to be "extra careful”.

The PM also gave some suggestions for the logo, which is expected to be launched in a week. Besides, he asked health ministry to pay particular attention to ensuring that hospitals empanelled under the scheme maintain cleanliness and hygiene.

Modi is also expected to announce the scheme from Red Fort during his Independence Day address. The review, which went on for more than 90 minutes on Saturday morning, was attended by top officials from the health ministry, Niti Aayog and PMO.

Modicare aims to cover nearly 50 crore beneficiaries from over 10.74 crore “deprived” families as per socio-economic and caste census (SECC) data with an annual health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family. .

States where the insurance scheme will be rolled out in the first phase include Chhattisgarh , Assam, Madhya Pradesh , West Bengal, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh , Gujarat and most Union Territories. In the first leg, about three crore families with 15 crore individuals will be covered, an official told TOI.

So far the Centre has signed memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with 26 states, whereas four more - Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Goa - are expected to come on board by next week. Some 6,000 hospitals have applied for empanelment so far.

The National Health Agency, the implementation agency for the scheme, has so far identified 10 crore families. “The verification process is going on and while some families are likely to have migrated since 2011 when the census was done, we have their names and they can come and claim benefits,” NHA chief Indu Bhushan said.

The NHA has also called for a meeting of chief secretaries and IT heads from all the 26 states over the weekend to work out the modalities and do dry runs before the final launch. The identification and verification process has been carried out through Gram Swaraj Abhiyan camps under Ayushman Bharat Diwas and through ASHA workers in three lakh villages.

While a total of 65 lakh families are yet to be identified under the beneficiary identification system, Uttar Pradesh has the most 23.61 lakh or 36% of missing families, followed by Bihar with 21.79 lakh or 34%. All the other states together have 19.45 lakh families missing from the list.

