Swasthya Sathi continues as hosps on verge of Ayushman Bharat rollout
Times of India | 5 July 2026
Kolkata: Even as hospitals wait for final instructions from the govt on the rollout of Ayushman Bharat, Swasthya Sathi patients continue to stream in and their bills are still getting approved across most private hospitals in Kolkata. Some have, in fact, been admitting more patients under Swasthya Sathi — the universal health scheme with a Rs 5 lakh coverage introduced by the Trinamool govt in 2016 — than they werein the last two-three years.
While Ayushman Bharat is set to be rolled out this month, Swasthya Sathi is not being completely scrapped, according to govt directions. Instead, the govt is currently working out a co-branding arrangement. Under this integration, current Swasthya Sathi beneficiaries will gradually be assimilated into the Ayushman Bharat infrastructure, allowing them to avail of portability benefits across more than 36,000 empanelled hospitals nationwide — a crucial update, particularly for Bengal’s large migrant worker population.
Meanwhile, hospitals continue to admit patients under Swasthya Sathi. Ruby General Hospital, which has also been empanelled under Ayushman Bharat for several years, admitted around 150 patients in June. “We are admitting Swasthya Sathi patients and receiving approvals fairly quickly. Since there has been no further notification on Ayushman Bharat, we shall continue with the previous scheme,” said Subhasish Datta, manager-operations at Ruby.
Woodlands Multispecialty Hospital admitted around 50-60 patients under Swasthya Sathi in the last one month. The number has increased compared to the previous month, said Woodlands CEO Rupak Barua, also the president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India (AHEI). “Approvals and payments remain regular under Swasthya Sathi. We have been verbally asked to carry on with the scheme till it is formally merged with Ayushman Bharat,” added Barua.
BP Poddar Hospital has been admitting Swasthya Sathi patients regularly, though the number is small. “All our patients under the scheme are admitted for cardiac procedures and trauma care. There has been no change or delays in approvals and payments,” said a hospital representative.
Swasthya Sathi admissions have been largely restricted to cardiac procedures and trauma care for several years now. Approvals for more expensive procedures like knee replacements require approval from the health department. Most are rejected, according to hospitals. “Around 70% of knee replacement procedure requests are turned down. The process includes sending all diagnostic reports to Swasthya Bhavan,” said a pvt hospital official.
He added that even for trauma care, complicated and expensive surgeries are often turned down. “In such cases, we attend to the patient and make sure that the life-risk period is over. Subsequently, the patient is advised to either shift to a govt hospital or get admitted at our hospital if he or she can afford the cost,” he said.
At Narayana Hospitals, too, Swasthya Sathi continues. “We continue to admit patients under the Swasthya Sathi scheme without any interruption. Approval processes are functioning smoothly, and we are not facing any issues at present. The number of Swasthya Sathi patients admitted over the last month has remained in line with our usual monthly average, reflecting continuity in patient care under the scheme,” said R Venkatesh, COO-Narayana Hospitals (East).