SHILLONG: The State Government on Tuesday signed an agreement with New India Assurance Company Ltd to roll out the phase-2 of the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS-2) to provide a comprehensive and universal health insurance cover to the entire population of the State.
The MHIS-2 is an enhanced version of the MHIS-I scheme that was launched in 2012.
The agreement was signed between CEO, Megha Health Insurance Scheme and Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, MR Synrem, and Sr. Divisional Manager, New India Assurance Company Ltd, L. Buam, in the presence of the Chief Minister, Health Minister AL Hek and other dignitaries.
“MHIS-2 will cover a broad variety of diseases and also provide greater financial cover to families to take care of expensive and long term medical expenses,” Synrem said.
MHIS-II is a ground breaking initiative of the GoM that has been designed in convergence mode with the Government of India’s existing health insurance scheme – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). While the RSBY provides Rs. 30,000 cover to only Below Poverty Line families, MHIS provides enhanced coverage of up to Rs. 2,00,000 to all the families of the State in addition to providing a top-up for BPL families “Residents of Meghalaya will now be able to avail a comprehensive spectrum of health services including super specialty treatment, advanced diagnostics, comprehensive outpatient services for pregnant women and children and long term consultation and treatment services for life style diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases on a cash less and free of cost basis subject to limits,” a government release said on Tuesday.
“Continuing with the innovations spearheaded by MHIS-I, the MHIS -II has been designed to fully integrate with the existing public health system in Meghalaya. The scheme will also significantly expand the number and quality of specialty and super-specialty hospitals available to the people of Meghalaya. Under the scheme at least 14 super-specialty hospitals located in major metropolitan cities of India will be empanelled to cater to the people of the State with emphasis on National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) accredited hospitals.
It was also informed that New India Assurance Company was selected as the insurer after a competitive bidding process where 10 of the leading health insurance companies of India submitted bids.
A joint IFC and World Bank team was the lead technical and transaction advisor to Meghalaya’s department of Health and Family Welfare, and the MHIS State nodal agency for RSBY.
