The central government has launched a new health scheme to cover existing and retired employees. The scheme called the GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND PENSIONERS HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME (CGEPHIS), will cover 1,700,000 existing employees and 70,000 pensioners.

The interesting part is that the new scheme would work very well for employees and pensioners not living in Central Government Health Services (CGHS) areas. Enrollment is optional for existing and past employees while new joiners would be compulsorily enrolled into the scheme.

One of the interesting aspects of the scheme is the use of smart cards to enable cash less transactions. Also there would be no waiting period for claim for new as well as existing disease conditions.

Plus keeping with advances in modern medicine, daily procedures (which do not need 24 hour hospitalization) would also be covered. One good example is dental procedures due to accidents would now be covered under this scheme.

In my opinion, the scheme is a step in the right direction and would help the central government employees to cover their healthcare needs. As the scheme would cover all CGHS facilities and empanelled hospitals, this would greatly reduce the travel time for the members, which usually is the case if they had to visit CGHS facilities.

For more on this scheme and how it affects you if you are a government employee please visit this link.