ESIC to cover entire India under ESI Scheme by year end of 2022

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) decided during its meeting on Sunday that its health insurance plan ESI will be implemented across the country by the end of 2022.

By the end of the year, the districts that are currently partially covered but not totally covered by the ESI Scheme will be fully covered.

Currently, 443 districts have fully implemented the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme, whereas 153 districts have only partially implemented it. The ESI Scheme does not cover a total of 148 districts.

The ESIC, led by Union labour and employment minister Bhupender Yadav, also decided to build 23 new 100-bed hospitals across the country, including six in Maharashtra, four in Haryana, two each in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.

Medical services would be provided through the establishment of new DCBOs (dispensary cum branch offices), the appointment of MIMPs (Modified Insurance Medical Practitioners), and Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana tie-up hospitals (PMJAY).

As a pilot project, ESIC said it will start certificate courses in 10 disciplines for healthcare link workers in three of its medical colleges in Faridabad, Sanathnagar in Hyderabad, and K K Nagar in Chennai, in order to meet the growing demand for skilled manpower in the healthcare sector and close the existing gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower.

ESIC will also augment its infrastructure by setting-up new hospitals and upgrading existing ones. Till the new hospitals are set up, ESIC said insured workers and their family members can avail cashless medical care services through Ayushman Bharat PMJAY empanelled hospitals. Yadav also said ESIC has undertaken to fill 6,400 vacancies for different posts in the last eight months. ESIC also decided to start radiation oncology and nuclear medicine departments at three ESIC medical college at Sanathnagar, Faridabad and Chennai.