Govt will link health card to insurance

NEW DELHI: Delhi government’s health cards, which will be issued to all 1.8 crore Delhi residents, will be linked to the upcoming insurance scheme, according to an amended notice inviting expression of interest (a pre-tender procedure).

It will also be linked to the health information management system that the AAP government has envisioned. It will centrally connect all its hospitals, polyclinics and mohalla clinics and also have information like free ward and ICU beds, availability of drugs and consumables and appointments.

HT had earlier reported that without a back-end linking, the card will end up becoming any other identity card with basic details of the patients like name of the patient, father or husband’s name, date of birth, gender, mobile number, voter ID number, Aadhaar number, address and category like general, SC/ST or OBC. The name of the card has also been renamed from the previous ‘Aam Aadmi health card’ to ‘Mukhya Mantri health card’.

The revised notice states that the card will have a QR code and will be attached to all existing health schemes extended by the government. “This will definitely help us in identifying duplication of services. Also, the card will have two identity points like the Aadhaar and voter ID ensuring that we are able to track people,” said Dr Kirti Bhushan, director general of health services.

The previous notice had explained the need for the heath card saying, “the concept of the health card is that the holder of the same shall be entitled for free healthcare services in the healthcare institutions either owned by GNCTD or run by GNCTD on society mode.”