The Indian government has intensified its anti-fraud measures within the Ayushman Bharat scheme, de-empanelling over 2,300 hospitals and deploying AI technology to prevent fraudulent claims, as the scheme continues to expand rapidly amidst ongoing enforcement action.
India’s Ayushman Bharat-प्रधान Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is facing its toughest anti-fraud clean-up yet, with the Union government saying thousands of hospitals have been pushed out of the scheme for breaches ranging from fake billing to misuse of patient identities. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on August 7, Health Minister J.P. Nadda said 2,359 hospitals had been de-empanelled and a further 1,200 suspended for violating rules. The same response said penalties of ₹328.49 crore had been imposed and 29 police cases registered.
The crackdown reflects the growing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to flag suspicious claims before money leaves the public system. According to the National Health Authority, the monitoring tools can trigger alerts within 24 hours when hospitals submit duplicate bills, use the wrong patient details or charge for unnecessary tests. The government said this technology had already prevented ₹676.14 crore from being lost by July 31, 2026.
Other reports show the anti-fraud drive is broader, though the numbers vary depending on the date and dataset used. Mint reported that the National Health Authority had acted against 2,842 hospitals, with 2,003 de-empanelled and 839 suspended, while imposing penalties totalling ₹114.06 crore. It said the authority’s anti-fraud unit had stopped the release of ₹678.47 crore in suspicious claims. Business Standard and Outlook India earlier reported that hundreds of hospitals had been penalised or suspended in separate rounds of action, underlining that the clean-up has been ongoing rather than a one-off sweep.
Even so, the scheme continues to expand. According to the government’s figures cited in the Lok Sabha reply, 3.75 crore new Ayushman cards were issued in financial year 2025-26 and 2.74 crore hospital admissions were authorised, while ₹8,438.27 crore was released to states for treatment costs. Uttar Pradesh led on utilisation, with 30.6 lakh patients treated and ₹1,047.53 crore in central funds. As of August 8, 2026, the government said 38,437 hospitals remained empanelled nationwide, including 20,363 public and 18,074 private facilities, leaving patients with wide choice so long as they check a hospital’s status before admission.
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