{
 "no": 49,
 "id": "case-49",
 "sk": 20230808,
 "year": 2023,
 "date": "CAG report tabled Aug 2023",
 "cat": "Public money",
 "sev": "amber",
 "title": "Ayushman Bharat. Dead patients 'treated', ghost phone numbers",
 "stamp": "CAG-flagged fraud, no reckoning",
 "human": {
  "v": "The poor the scheme exists to cover, crowded out by fraud and, the audit found, sometimes still charged despite 'cashless' care",
  "est": true
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "<b>₹6.97 cr</b> paid to 'treat' 3,446 patients already recorded as dead; up to <b>7.5 lakh</b> beneficiaries on one phone number",
  "est": false
 },
 "what": "The national auditor's 2023 performance audit of the Ayushman Bharat health-insurance scheme found up to 7.5 lakh beneficiaries registered against a single mobile number (9999999999), thousands registered against the same Aadhaar numbers, ₹6.97 crore paid for the treatment of 3,446 patients already recorded as dead, and tens of thousands of cases of one patient admitted to several hospitals at the same time.",
 "dodge": "This is not an opposition allegation but a finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General, tabled in Parliament. It points to large-scale leakage of public health money into fraud and ghost claims in a scheme meant for the poorest, with weak checks to stop it. The Health Ministry disputed how the mobile-number data should be read, but the core irregularities passed without any senior accountability or a full, public reckoning.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "Mansukh Mandaviya",
   "r": "Health Minister (2023)"
  },
  {
   "n": "National Health Authority",
   "r": "Scheme administration"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "The Health Ministry said mobile numbers play no role in verifying beneficiaries, that dummy numbers were used, and that AI-based checks and action on around 1.6 lakh flagged claims show fraud is being tackled.",
 "alt": "Close the ghost-beneficiary and dead-patient loopholes, publish the fraud and recovery data, and hold administrators accountable for public health money lost to leakage.",
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "'Dead' patients treated; ghost numbers (Business Today)",
   "url": "https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/policy/story/ayushman-bharat-patients-shown-as-dead-getting-treatment-985-lakh-ab-pmjay-beneficiaries-linked-to-same-mobile-number-says-cag-report-393403-2023-08-09",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260727134109/https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/policy/story/ayushman-bharat-patients-shown-as-dead-getting-treatment-985-lakh-ab-pmjay-beneficiaries-linked-to-same-mobile-number-says-cag-report-393403-2023-08-09"
  },
  {
   "label": "₹6.97 cr paid to dead patients (CAG)",
   "url": "https://www.deccanherald.com/health/healthcare/rs-697-crore-was-paid-to-dead-patients-under-pmjay-cag-2649876",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20241109081338/https://www.deccanherald.com/health/healthcare/rs-697-crore-was-paid-to-dead-patients-under-pmjay-cag-2649876"
  }
 ],
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 6.97
 },
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-49/"
}