Dr NTR Vaidya Seva

What is Dr NTR Vaidya Seva?

Dr NTR Vaidya Seva is the flagship health assurance scheme of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, administered by the Dr Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Vaidya Seva Trust under the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department. The scheme pays empanelled government and private hospitals directly so that an eligible family receives listed surgical and medical treatment without paying cash at the counter.

According to the Dr NTR Vaidya Seva Trust portal, the scheme is described as "a flagship scheme of all health initiatives of the State Government to provide quality healthcare to the poor", delivered through a public-private partnership network covering secondary and tertiary care. Andhra Pradesh readers also know the scheme by its Telugu name, NTR Vaidya Seva, and by its original 2007 name, Rajiv Aarogyasri, which is still the word most people use in hospital corridors.

Coverage under the scheme has been enhanced in stages. The current headline ceiling is up to Rs 25 lakh per family per year, with the initial slab of approved expenditure settled through an insurance arrangement and the amount above that slab met from the Trust's own corpus. The Andhra Pradesh cabinet approved a universal health policy on 4 September 2025 intended to widen the scheme towards all residents of the state through an NTR Vaidya Seva hybrid policy across roughly 2,493 network hospitals.

Main features

• Fully cashless treatment for listed procedures at empanelled hospitals.
• More than 3,000 approved medical and surgical procedures across around 31 specialities, including cardiology, oncology, nephrology, neurosurgery and orthopaedics.
• An Aarogya Mitra help desk stationed inside every empanelled hospital to handle registration, pre-authorisation and discharge paperwork for the patient.
• A defined list of government-reserved procedures, counted at 171 in the Trust's circular dated 24 April 2023, which only government hospitals may perform under the scheme.
• Follow-up medicines and review visits included inside the package cost for many procedures, so the family does not pay after discharge either.

Who is eligible for Dr NTR Vaidya Seva?

You are covered if:

• You are a resident of Andhra Pradesh and your family is recorded in the state's beneficiary database.
• Your family holds a rice card (white ration card), the traditional identifier used to establish low-income status for the scheme.
• Your family income falls within the ceiling notified by the Trust; an annual household income of up to Rs 5 lakh is the figure most widely reported for the scheme's targeted phase.
• Your treatment appears on the Trust's list of approved procedures and is done at an empanelled hospital.

You are not eligible, or the claim will not be paid, if:

• The hospital you choose is not empanelled with the Dr NTR Vaidya Seva Trust. No reimbursement route exists for a bill raised by a non-empanelled hospital.
• The procedure is not on the approved list. Cosmetic work and treatments outside the notified packages are excluded.
• A private hospital performs a government-reserved procedure. The claim is rejected even if the patient is otherwise eligible.
• The family is above the notified income ceiling under the targeted phase, or the patient is already covered by a government employee health scheme such as EHS or by another state's scheme.
• The identity of the patient cannot be matched to an enrolled family through Aadhaar or the rice card.

Employees and pensioners of the Andhra Pradesh government are covered separately through the Employees Health Scheme, which uses the same empanelled hospital network and the same Trust but a different card and a different funding route.

What documents are required for Dr NTR Vaidya Seva?

How to apply for Dr NTR Vaidya Seva

1. Check that your family is enrolled. Take your Aadhaar and rice card to the Grama or Ward Sachivalayam, or open the Aarogya Raksha card portal linked from drntrvaidyaseva.ap.gov.in, and search for your household.
2. Get the health card issued. Enrolment and the card are free. Apply online through the Aarogya Raksha link at api-app.drntrvaidyaseva.ap.gov.in/arogyaraksha, or hand the same documents to the Sachivalayam digital assistant for offline enrolment.
3. Confirm the hospital is empanelled before admission, using the hospital search on the Trust portal or by calling 104. This single step prevents most of the out-of-pocket bills patients complain about.
4. Report to the Aarogya Mitra desk at the hospital with the Aadhaar card and health card. The Aarogya Mitra registers the patient and raises the pre-authorisation request to the Trust along with the diagnosis and reports.
5. Wait for the Trust's pre-authorisation approval, which is communicated to the hospital and by SMS to the registered mobile number. Emergency cases are processed on an emergency track so treatment is not held up.
6. Take the treatment cashless and collect the discharge summary, which states the package used and the follow-up entitlement.

How to apply offline at a Sachivalayam

1. Visit your Grama or Ward Sachivalayam during working hours with the Aadhaar cards of all family members and the rice card.
2. Ask the digital assistant or welfare assistant to check whether the family is present in the Vaidya Seva database and to raise an enrolment or correction request if a member is missing.
3. Collect the acknowledgement and note the request number.
4. Follow up at the same Sachivalayam or on 104 if the record is not updated.

How do I check status and find an empanelled hospital?

1. Open drntrvaidyaseva.ap.gov.in and use the hospital search to filter by district and speciality.
2. Use the Mithra app on Android, published by the Trust, to look up hospitals and track a case from a phone.
3. For a case already admitted, ask the Aarogya Mitra for the pre-authorisation status, which the hospital sees live on the Trust's system.
4. Call 104, the Andhra Pradesh health helpline, for anything the hospital desk cannot resolve.

Why do Dr NTR Vaidya Seva claims get rejected?

• Hospital not empanelled, so no claim can be raised at all.
• Procedure outside the approved package list, or a package claimed that does not match the diagnosis uploaded.
• Government-reserved procedure attempted at a private hospital.
• Incomplete pre-authorisation documents, typically missing scan reports or a missing signature from the treating consultant.
• Identity mismatch between Aadhaar and the family record, common where a name spelling or date of birth differs.
• Duplicate claim for the same episode of care.

Most rejections are documentation problems, not eligibility problems. The fix is to have the Aarogya Mitra re-upload correct reports and resubmit, rather than to pay the hospital and seek reimbursement later, because there is no reimbursement route for a cashless scheme.

What has changed recently?

Dr NTR Vaidya Seva has been through a period of pending payments to empanelled hospitals, and the Andhra Pradesh government released Rs 250 crore to clear Vaidya Seva dues as reported in the state press. Patients should be aware that hospitals occasionally cite pending dues as a reason to refuse admission under the scheme; that refusal is not permitted for an empanelled hospital and should be reported on 104.

Help and grievance redressal

• Health helpline: 104
• Ambulance: 108
• Aarogya Mitra desk inside every empanelled hospital, for admission, pre-authorisation and discharge issues
• Grama or Ward Sachivalayam for enrolment, card and family record corrections
• Dr NTR Vaidya Seva Trust portal: drntrvaidyaseva.ap.gov.in for hospital search, user manuals and the Aarogya Raksha card link

Enrolment under Dr NTR Vaidya Seva is free, and treatment at an empanelled hospital for a listed procedure must be fully cashless. No agent can charge you to add a family member, and no hospital may ask for a deposit for a covered procedure.