Centre eases PMGKP insurance scheme for health workers, claims to be settled in 48hrs

Aiming to streamline the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) insurance scheme and to provide relief to health workers amid COVID-19, the Central government on Tuesday announced that the claims will now be certified by the district collectors of the respective state governments and insurance companies will approve and settle the claims within a period of 48 hours.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, the move comes after some states expressed concerns over delay in processing of the insurance claims.

"States and other stakeholders had been raising the matter that the processing of the insurance claims was getting delayed. In order to cut down on these delays and to further streamline and simplify the processing of the insurance claims, it has been decided to start a new system for approval of claims as per which the due diligence will be done by state governments at the level of district collector," the ministry said.

The District Collector in each case will be certifying that the claim is in accordance with SoP of the scheme. On the basis of this certificate of the collector, Insurance Company will approve and settle the claims within a period of 48 hours.

Further, for the sake of uniformity and prompt disposal, the District Collector will also do due diligence and certify the claims even in case of Central Government hospitals or AIIMS or Railways, the statement said. The government has informed all States Governments and UT Administrations about this new system which comes into effect immediately.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) Insurance Scheme for Health Workers fighting COVID-19 came into effect on March 30 initially for a period of 90 days to provide comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 lakh to all healthcare providers, including community health workers and private health workers drafted by the government for the care of COVID-19 patients and for those who may have come in direct contact of COVID-19 patients and were at risk of being impacted by it.

The scheme is being implemented through an Insurance policy from New India Assurance Company (NIACL). The insurance policy has been extended twice so far, the ministry added.

( With inputs from ANI )