Oral health utilization and awareness of Ayushman Bharat (PMJAY) health insurance scheme in Bangalore

Background: Oral health has a significant impact on quality of life of an individual but often an overlooked component of overall health. Oral diseases are emerging as a major public health concern in India and Ayushman Bharat Yojana focuses to help enhance oral health care of the entire nation. We aimed to assess the awareness and utilization of dental services under Ayushman Bharat health scheme among outpatients in Bangalore hospitals. Methods: A mixed method comprising case analysis and cross sectional observation was carried out. The annual reports data of Ayushman Bharat scheme in Karnataka was obtained for the case analysis. A cross sectional study was carried out among 150 adults in five Bangalore hospitals and data was collected using self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis was done using SPSS 24. Results: The study showed that 65.7% of the participants were unaware of Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. 25% of the participants were the beneficiaries of this scheme. Only 6% of the study participants availed general treatment under Ayushman Bharat and the treatment availed were for heart surgeries, labour and child birth, tuberculosis and cancer treatments. 12.5% of our participants were aware about dental coverage included in Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme and only 1 participant availed jaw surgery after road traffic accident under this scheme. Conclusions: This study showed there is high Out-Of-Pocket Payments (OOP) spending and lack of knowledge regarding dental coverage under Ayushman Bharat scheme.