BHUBANESWAR : The state government has asked all districts to intensify the awareness on Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) Nabin card, which offers cashless health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per annum (up to `10 lakh for women members) to people in rural Odisha.
The Health and Family Welfare department has asked CDMOs to put in extra efforts for proper publicity of the new health card and ensure that no eligible family or person is left out of the scheme in the rural areas of the state. Sources said the department has extended the deadline upto January 26 for online registration of beneficiaries as the progress was beyond expectation due to various reasons, including network issues and lack of awareness among residents in many areas.
“The CDMOs have been asked to seek funds, if they require, for making people aware about the health card at village level. They can place their demands before the state health assurance society (SHAS),” the sources said. Although it is estimated that around 14 lakh families would be covered by the BSKY Nabin card in the third phase expansion of the scheme, so far only 3.46 lakh households comprising 9.7 lakh beneficiaries have applied for it.
The highest 48,500 applications have been received from Ganjam, followed by 28,794 from Cuttack, 26,825 from Khurda, 23,042 from Bhadrak, 22,570 from Balasore, 20,744 from Puri, 19,578 from Kendrapara and 14,947 from Nayagarh.
Similarly, 15,248 applications have been received from Jagatsinghpur, 14,061 from Jajpur, 14,569 from Bargarh, 12,349 from Sundargarh, 12,397 from Angul and 11,880 from Dhenkanal. The department has appealed to all left-out families in rural areas except regular government employees, pensioners and income tax payers to apply in this phase. The beneficiaries will get cashless treatment in empanelled private hospitals both inside and outside the state, for identified critical illnesses.