368 empanelled hospitals & diagnostic centres under ECHS, Parliament told
Chandigarh, March 24
Haryana has the second highest number of empanelled medical facilities in the country under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) that provides cashless medicare cover to retired armed forces personnel and their dependents.
Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme
- ECHS was launched in April 2003 to provide quality medical care to the ex-servicemen and their dependents through 30 regional centres and 433 Polyclinics pan India
- It also has six centres in Nepal, besides 3,158 empanelled private medical facilities. It has a total beneficiary base of nearly 55 lakh
- The scheme is structured on the lines of the Central Government Health Scheme to provide cashless and capless medical treatment cover at CGHS rates
The state has 368 empanelled hospitals and diagnostic centres, according to data shared by the Ministry of Defence with Parliament on Friday. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 388 such centres, followed by 364 in Maharashtra and 338 in Punjab.
These are also states that are among the top contributors of manpower to the armed forces.The ministry’s data also revealed that there had been a nearly three-fold increase in the number of patients availing treatment through the ECHS over the past three years.
In 2020, the footfall was 58.80 lakh, which went up to 1.24 crore in 2022 and 1.53 crore in 2022. The low footfall in 2020 was probably due to the lockdown and restrictions put in place due to the Covid pandemic.
Parliament was also told that a sum of Rs 4579.63 crore was spent on the ECHS in the 2020-21 fiscal. This increased to Rs 4764.66 crore in 2021-22 and to Rs 4897.64 crore till March 15 in the current fiscal.
The ECHS all ex-servicemen drawing pension from the Controller of Defence Accounts, including those in receipt of disability or family pension and their dependents to be eligible for membership.
The membership has been made compulsory for all pensioners with effect from April 1, 2003, but is optional for earlier retirees.
Over the years, the ECHS membership has also been extended to pensioners of the Territorial Army, Defence Security Corps, Uniformed Indian Coast Guard, Military Nursing Service, Special Frontier Force, Nepal Domiciled Gorkha, Whole-time NCC officers, eligible Army Postal Service pensioners, Assam Rifles pensioners, World War-II veterans, Short Service Commission officers, Emergency Commissioned officers and pre-mature retirees.
Ex-servicemen who have retired prior to January 1, 1996, war widows and war-disabled soldiers, including those disabled in internal security duties, are exempt from the payment of the ECHS contribution fee.
