Centre plans to provide cashless treatment for road accident victims

In a significant development, the Centre is planning to launch a cashless treatment scheme up to Rs 2.5 lakh for road accident victims in order to ensure that every one has access to immediate medical care.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will set up a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund with its own contribution and also from the General Insurance Company (GIC) for this scheme.

According to Centre, GIC will bear the expenses incurred on victims due to accidents involving insured vehicles and in ‘hit and run’ cases, while the Road Transport Ministry will bear the expenditure for crashes involving uninsured vehicles

The IT platforms of NHA (National Health Authority) would be used to provide cashless treatment for road accident victims for treatment including the first hour of the accident. It is to be noted that NHA's IT platforms are also used for implementing AB-PM JAY (Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) across the country.

It is learnt that an account will be established under the Union Road Ministry to finance the trauma and healthcare services to road accident victims who will be covered under the new cashless scheme.

Notably, 32 out of 36 states/union territories in India are implementing PMJAY and the cashless scheme would provide benefits to about 13 crore families.