Odisha Govt extends BSKY benefits to child members in 5-18 age group of NFSA, SFSS families

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government today extended the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) benefits to child members in the age group of 5 to 18 years of the families coming under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the State Food Security Scheme (SFSS), whose names are not there in the database.

Parents whose names are already in the database may avail the benefit by producing documentary evidence to support their claim that the individual entity being treated in a hospital is their child.

The decision was taken after it came to the notice of State Health Assurance Society that in some cases even though a family is covered under NFSA/SFSS, the names of some child members of the family are left out of the official database. This is due to the non-availability of vacant slots in that Block for the addition of new members to the NFSA/SFSS database. As a result, it was not possible on the part of a hospital to register and authenticate such child beneficiaries for cashless treatment under BSKY.

In order to overcome the issue, the Government approved that the BSKY benefits will be extended to the child members of NFSA/SFSS families by Blocking in the name of the father and or mother.

As per order No-597 dated April 29, 2022, of the State Health Assurance Society, children below five years of age are already being provided coverage under BSKY on the basis of self-declaration by a cardholder.