Bartronics To Provide Smartcards For Bihar's Health Insurance Scheme

Bartronics India Limited (BIL), one of the leading providers of end-to-end solutions based on AIDC technologies, has been selected as the preferred service provider for the implementation of Bihar Government’s Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

This scheme aims at providing health insurance cover to ‘Below Poverty Line’ population of the state. The scheme will cover over 39 lakh families across eight districts of Bihar and will be launched in June 2008.

Keeping in view the vulnerability of poor households in the times of medical emergencies, the RSBY scheme has been launched by the Central Government to provide a support system to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families in the participating states and districts through the provision of health insurance in the case of hospitalisation.

The scheme allows each participating state to cover 20 percent of their respective districts each year. Almost every large state government has expressed its intention of joining the scheme and many have already issued tender notices.

The unique feature of RSBY is the provision of smartcard-based health insurance coverage. The cards will facilitate portability of benefits and cashless medical cover up to Rs 30,000 for the unorganised sector worker and his family (unit of five) per annum. The scheme, expected to become fully operational in the next five years, would be one of the largest social sector programmes in the world involving several crore beneficiaries.

In the state of Bihar, Oriental Insurance Company is spearheading the effort with Medicare TPA Service as the implementation partner. Smartcards manufactured by Bartronics India will aid this implementation.