Faulty health insurance smart cards raise ire

our correspondent

Itagar, June 5: Alleging technical fault and erroneous data entry in many smart cards issued under Aruchal Pradesh Chief Minister Universal Health Insurance Scheme (APCMUHIS), some of the beneficiaries of East Siang district have demanded the state’s health department for re-verification of the smart cards.

The Divjoni Medicare Diagnostic Centre & Nursing Home, a private-run hospital at Ruksin empanelled under APCMUHIS have traced many erroneous data entry in the smart cards. It is reported that some smart cards produced by patients do not have sufficient biometric data about the family members, while there are no finger prints of the holders. Moreover, finger prints entered in the electronic card was not tallied with the holder/s during verification, forcing the patients to clear their bills.

The ambitious health insurance scheme, launched on 20 February 2014 is aimed at providing cashless treatment to all sections of people in the state by giving coverage of Rs two lakh for almost all categories of diseases. The state government entrusted ‘The New India Assurance Company Ltd’ for preparation of the smart cards inserting all required biometric information of the beneficiaries such as me, sex, age with fingerprints. But, there are instances of erroneous entries depriving poor families from getting benefit under the insurance scheme.  In a recent incident, one Yabi Tayeng, 59 year old women of Ruksin village here was admitted at Divjani Medicare for a surgery but there was no finger print of the patient and other family members in the electronic card. Moreover, Yabi, who is the family head, is also wrongly entered as ‘Male’ in the card and thereby deprived from benefit under the scheme. Earlier too, the hospital have detected some invalid smart cards, which has been reported to the authority concerned.