IFMR Trust, an Indian nonprofit organization that promotes access to finance, and Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) International Private Limited, an Indian company that operates educational and healthcare institutions, have recently been accepted into the government of India’s health insurance program targeting families below the poverty line (BPL), known as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). IFMR Trust is looking to enroll 170,000 of its customers into RSBY while MEMG will aim to enroll an additional 80,000 households. As of June 2011, 23 million Indian households were covered by RSBY [1].
RSBY was launched in 2008 to provide annual health insurance coverage of up to INR 30,000 (USD 650) for BPL households. In return for a yearly INR 30 (USD 0.65) registration fee paid by the BPL family, the state and federal government pay up to INR 750 (USD 16) in health insurance premiums covering up to five beneficiaries per household [2]. Three quarters of the premium is paid by the federal government with the remaining 25 percent covered by state governments. RSBY employs a number of features that are meant to provide quality healthcare to the neediest people, including: (a) the choice of receiving care at either private or public health facilities; (b) direct government payment of premiums, which is intended to create an incentive for insurance companies to seek out BPL households; (c) reimbursement to hospitals on a per-patient basis, along with monitoring for unnecessary procedures and fraud; and (d) the active involvement of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as intermediaries to reach BPL households. One feature that can be of particular value to migrant workers is that individuals enrolled in RSBY can access health services across the country. Through the use of government-issued “biometric enabled” smart cards for all participants, RSBY intends to increase security and eliminate cash transactions and paper records [2].
By Rohan Trivedi, Research Associate
About Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Trust:
Established in 2008, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Trust is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “ensure that every individual and every enterprise has complete access to financial services.” IFMR Trust carries out its mission through the following five subsidiaries: IFMR Capital, IFMR Mezzanine, IFMR Rural Finance, IFMR Ventures and Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services (KGFS) Capital Partners. As of March 2010, IFMR Trust reported total assets of INR 2.06 billion (USD 45.8 million).
About Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) International Private Limited:
MEMG is an Indian company that was founded in 1953 and is based in Bangalore. MEMG operates and manages academic, research and healthcare facilities and is actively involved in running six educational institutions and eleven hospitals in India, Nepal, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island of Antigua. On the research side, MEMG specializes in genomics, genetics and stem cells. Financial information on the organization is not available.
Sources and Additional Resources:
[1] The Economic Times: “Change coming: Big private trusts knock on RSBY doors”, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-23/news/29574306_1_rsby-health-insurance-rashtriya-swasthya-bima-yojana
[2] About Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Government of India: http://www.rsby.gov.in/about_rsby.aspx
MicroCapital Universe Profile: IFMR Trust, https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=IFMR+Trust
MicroCapital Universe Profile: Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) International Private Limited, https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Manipal+Education+and+Medical+Group+%28MEMG%29+International+Private+Limited
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