Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme

The Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme, launched in 2009-10, stands as a testament to the Indian government's commitment to providing quality healthcare to its most vulnerable citizens. This scheme specifically targets Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Karnataka, offering them cashless treatment for a range of critical and life-threatening ailments.

Treatment of chronic illnesses can lead to a family spending their hard-earned money towards hospitalisation, surgical, diagnostic, and therapeutic as well as post-recovery expenses. The Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme seeks to minimise the expenditure by providing quality medical care to poor households at reasonable rates with the State Government incurring the entire cost of treatment.

• Cashless Treatment: Beneficiaries can avail of treatment at empanelled hospitals without any upfront payments. The scheme covers hospitalization, surgery, and post-operative care for listed procedures.

• Wide Range of Coverage: The scheme covers over 400 listed procedures, encompassing major surgeries, chronic conditions, and even organ transplants.

• Focus on Tertiary Care: Vajpayee Arogyashree primarily focuses on tertiary healthcare, providing access to specialized medical services for BPL families who might otherwise struggle to afford them.

• Network of Hospitals: The scheme has a wide network of empaneled hospitals across Karnataka, ensuring convenient access to quality medical care.

While the scheme covers a wide variety of diseases, some of the main ones are listed below:

• Cardiovascular diseases

• Cancer

• Burns

• Kidney diseases

• Neonatal cases

• Neurological diseases

• Polytrauma cases

• Renal diseases

All ‘Below Poverty Line’ families living in Karnataka are eligible to take advantage of the benefits offered by the Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme. Identification of beneficiaries under this scheme is done through the government-issued BPL ration cards. The beneficiaries need to present their BPL ration cards at the time of registration and making a claim.

To be eligible for the Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme, individuals must:

• Be a resident of Karnataka

• Belong to a BPL family as identified by the state government

• Possess a valid BPL ration card

You will need the following documents to apply for the Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme:

1. Aadhaar Card

2. Self-declaration

3. BPL Card

4. PDS Card

When you proceed for enrolment, your Aadhaar card is used to verify the biometrics against the CIDR Aadhaar server. Once authenticated, the e-KYC details are automatically filled in. A unique patient ID called the ArKID is generated by enrolling the applicant on the official website of Arogya Karnataka.

An SMS alert is also sent to your registered Vajpayee Arogyashree contact number confirming the successful registration of the applicant. The ArKID is the PDS card number followed by a separator and a number for each family member. You can get this unique scheme ID printed on a UHC card by paying ₹10. Your photo, name and other details along with the ArKID are printed on the UHC card which you can carry to the nearest hospital for treatment.

District and Taluka hospitals and those in urban areas are a part of the scheme. A few of the Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme hospitals are mentioned below:

• Karnataka Institute of Medical Science, Hubbali

• Gulbarga Institute of Medical Science, Kalaburagi

• District hospital Madikeri, Kodagu

• K C General Hospital, Malleshwaram, Bangalore

• Mandya Institute of Medical Science, Teaching Hospital, Mandya

• Wenlock District Hospital Mangalore

• General Hospital Hunsur, Mysore

• Bidar District Hospital

• Jayanagar General Hospital, Bangalore

• Taluk Hospital Mudhol, Bagalkot

The Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) is a special-purpose vehicle incorporated under the Indian Trust Act, of 1882. It functions under the Karnataka Government's Department of Health and Family Welfare. The main purpose of Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust is to ensure a reduction in direct spending on healthcare using strategic measures.

One of these measures is to get super speciality private and public healthcare providers that will deliver better tertiary care to patients. It is also responsible for the management of various government schemes like Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme, Indira Suraksha Yojana, Rajiv Arogya Bhagya, Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, etc.

The Vajpayee Arogyashree Yojana is a cashless scheme, meaning the beneficiaries do not have to pay any money at the network hospitals. Instead, the insurer directly settles the hospital bills upon treatment. However, if the hospital bill exceeds the maximum claim amount, the beneficiary may have to pay the remaining bills out of their pocket.

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