Hyderabad|India|December'2009: The Chief Minister Mr K Rosaiah congratulated the Rajiv Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust for winning the coveted The Manthan Award - South Asia 2009. Mr Rosaiah said the Aarogyasri scheme has been widely appreciated in the country and acclaimed all over the most successful unique healthcare scheme for the poor and low income people. He said many other States and Countries has evinced keen interest in the scheme and want to replicate the same. The Chief Minister appreciated the CEO of the Trust and other staff for winning many laurels including the Manthan Award.

Recognizing the capabilities of the ICT project, Aarogyasri Health Insurance scheme was awarded The Manthan Award, South Asia 2009 under e-health category. On behalf of the scheme, the CEO, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, Mr. Babu A, IAS received the Award at New Delhi on 19th December 2009. The citation and jurors evaluation read “Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Insurance Scheme in Andhra Pradesh, India has taken a lead in extending quality and affordable healthcare facilities to the downtrodden sections of the Society. Providing basic health care in a large country like India has always been a good governance challenge. Lakhs of people are being benefitted from this scheme currently in Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the largest health care schemes ever undertaken by a state government and other states are looking to replicate it too.’

The Manthan Award is the first of its kind initiative in India to recognize the best practices in e-Content and Creativity in South Asia. It was launched on 10th October '2004, by Digital Empowerment Foundation in partnership with World Summit Award, Department f Information Technology, Govt. of India, and various other stakeholders like civil society members, media and other similar organisations engaged in promoting digital content inclusiveness in the whole of South Asian nation Sates for development. Since then it has come to define the very best in e-Content for development arena in SAARC countries namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan & Afghanistan.Award Category – E-Health: Developing the consumer-centered model of healthcare where stakeholders collaborate, utilizing Information Technology, including internet technologies to manage health issues as well as the health care system.

It may be stated here that the Aarogyasri Health Insurance Scheme is a unique Health Insurance Scheme (Rajiv Aarogyasri Community Health Insurance Scheme) to help the BPL population of the State to meet catastrophic health expenditure, initiated by Government of Andhra Pradesh and implemented through an independent Trust – Aarogyasri Health Care Trust. The scheme is benefiting 2.04 crore BPL families in 23 districts through 350 network hospitals and around 6000 field staff. In order to cater to the needs of massive programme with an average of around 8000 screenings,3000 registrations,1200 pre-authorizations per day and other uses an IT solution was developed and successfully utilized for implementation of scheme. The IT solution based on web application is delivering the needs efficiently, transparently and effectively.

Progress of the scheme: As on 19.12.2009, 347 network hospitals conducted 14892 free Health Camps and screened 25.98 lakh people. 5.46 lakh patients were treated as in-patients and 6.79 lakh patients were treated as out-patients under the scheme. 4.77 lakh surgeries/therapies were performed and the claimed amount is Rs 1422.63 Crores.