The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday entered into an agreement with the Centre for implementing the Ayushman Bharat Scheme (ABS) in association with the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS) in the State.

Tamil Nadu is the 30th State to sign up for ABS. State Health & Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar signed the MoU, according to a statement.

Existing coverage

The existing CMCHIS covers 1.57 crore families and provides a coverage of ₹1 lakh per year for 1,027 procedures, including ₹ 2 lakh per year for 154 specified procedures. The State also has a corpus fund to ensure eight high-end procedures.

With the latest association, it is expected that about 77 lakh poor and vulnerable families in Tamil Nadu (about 2.85 crore individuals) as per SECC (socio economic and caste census) list, will benefit from access to cashless and paperless treatment in hospitals through health insurance coverage up to ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

₹5-lakh coverage

The government has also stated that CMCHIS will also be covered to the same extent of ₹5 lakh to ensure uniform benefit to all.

So, all CMCHIS beneficiaries, irrespective of whether they are covered under National Health Protection Scheme / Ayushman Bharat or not, will get enhanced coverage of ₹5 lakh a year.

New cards

The current arrangement of all high-end procedures up to ₹25 lakh being covered under corpus fund of CMCHIS will continue.

Individuals not enrolled under CMCHIS but are in the SECC list will be issued new CMCHIS cards after enrolment as per procedure.

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