India News | Ayushman Cards Will Be Co-branded, to Include Names of State Schemes, Says Health Ministry

New Delhi, Aug 24 (PTI) Ayushman cards will be co-branded with state logos and names of state-specific health schemes along with the Centre's flagship health scheme to bring greater integrity and uniformity, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Barring Delhi, West Bengal and Odisha, all other states and union territories have agreed to co-branding of the cards which will be renamed 'Ayushman Cards', it said.

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The National Health Authority (NHA) decided to bring "greater integrity and uniformity in the beneficiary cards" issued under the scheme by re-christening them under the common name 'Ayushman cards'.

A standardised co-branded card design has been developed which "allot equal space" to both Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and state-specific logos, the ministry said in a statement.

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It will also have the name of the state scheme along with ABPM-JAY. The card will be bilingual, English and local language, it said.

Giving the rationale behind co-branding, the ministry said it was envisaged with the "purpose of maintaining uniformity across the PM-JAY ecosystem while allowing for state-specific customisations."

The NHA is constantly engaging with states to issue co-branded cards and the majority of the states and Union Territories have adopted the guidelines on co-branding, the statement reads.

The authority will provide full financial support for the issuance of co-branded cards to beneficiaries under the Central scheme as well as the state scheme, the health ministry said.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY provides health coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per eligible beneficiary family annually for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisations corresponding to 1,949 treatment procedures across 27 specialities.

The 10.74 crore beneficiary families under AB PM-JAY have been selected from the Socio-economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011.

As of August 17, approximately 18.81 crore individuals have been verified under the scheme, of which 14.12 crore have been issued Ayushman cards.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)