Ampati, May 25: The District-level workshop for smooth implementation of Megha Health Insurance Scheme Phase III (MHIS III) was held at the DC’s Office Conference Room, Ampati on Thursday which was attended by all the stakeholders of South West Garo Hills, including the Deputy Commissioner Cyril V.D. Diengdoh, C&RD block officials, representatives of State Nodal Agency, MHIS, representatives of New India Insurance Co. Ltd and Medicare and medical officers representing various PHCs and CHCs in the district as well as the line departments among others.
It may be mentioned here that South West Garo Hills had received an award for achieving the highest enrollment of over 81 percent for MHIS II which was received by Deputy Commissioner Cyril Diengdoh during the State level workshop on MHIS III in Shillong recently.
During the workshop, Deputy Commissioner Cyril Diengdoh said that MHIS is one of the best schemes which has been well received well by the people with much enthusiasm and stressed the need to sustain this enthusiasm of the people by overcoming the key challenges they faced while implementing MHIS I and II through proper planning. Having achieved over 80 percent coverage in phase II, he said that the district must now target for 100 percent coverage by reaching the unreached, including the differently abled persons and special coverage of senior citizens. He called upon all the stakeholders present to make use of the workshop to analyze all issues and challenges of enrollment and discuss how they can move forward for implementation of phase III with a more coordinated approach to ensure that this universal scheme would go a long way in providing quality health care for the people, particularly in the rural areas.
Earlier, the District Key Manager (MHIS), Dr. Calvaryn Sangma in his welcome address gave a brief highlight of the workshop, the purpose of which he said, was to fulfill the objective of achieving the district target in the implementation of MHIS III which would begin from the first week of June.
During the workshop, Grievance Redressal Manager, MHIS State Nodal Agency, Shillong, A. Alda Passi gave a presentation on MHIS III with its new features and highlighted the achievements in MHIS II, issues and challenges in respect of South west Garo Hills district, the roles and responsibilities of medical officers and other line departments, while a representative of New India Insurance Co. Ltd, Stephen Lalrinchhana gave a brief highlight about the company profile and called for concerted team work to make this initiative of the State Government a success.
State Coordinator, Tony Singha, BDO, Betasing C&RD block Albert G. Momin and DPM-MHIS, Ampati, Sankar Hajong were among others who participated in the discussion on issues and challenges of implementation of MHIS. The discussions also stressed on IEC, training and capacity building of all the stakeholders to successful implementation of the scheme.
Some of the salient features of MHIS III are: insurance cover upto Rs. 2.80 lakh per household; Rs.30,000 additional coverage per senior citizen (RSBY category); enrollment fee of Rs.50 per household; it has increased no. of packages up to 1708 and senior citizen packages; it covers all pre-existing diseases and no age limit and a maximum benefit of Rs.2.50 lakh one time critical illness cover per beneficiary . Each and every household who enroll for the scheme will receive a Smart Card on the day of enrollment which can be used for a variety of activities like identification of the beneficiary through photograph and fingerprints and information regarding the patient.
