Ayushman Card Status: How to Track e-KYC Approval and Hospital Pre-Authorisation

Ayushman Card Status: How to Track e-KYC Approval and Hospital Pre-Authorisation

To check the status of an Ayushman card you have already applied for, log in as a Beneficiary on beneficiary.nha.gov.in or in the Ayushman App with your mobile number and OTP, search your household again, and read the tag against your name: an approved record shows a downloadable card, while a pending one stays at e-KYC or awaits state-level (L2) approval. For eligibility, documents and the full application route, read the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) guide; this article deals only with tracking a submission that has already gone in.

There are really two different "statuses" people mean under PM-JAY, and they are tracked in completely different places. One is card status after you complete e-KYC. The other is pre-authorisation status for a hospital admission, which is handled by the hospital's Arogya Mitra and the State Health Agency, not by you.

How to check Ayushman card status online

1. Open the Ayushman App or beneficiary.nha.gov.in and choose the Beneficiary login.
2. Enter the same mobile number you used during e-KYC and the OTP sent to it. Using a different number will show no record even if your application exists.
3. Select your state, district and scheme, then search by Aadhaar number, family ID, ration card, PMJAY ID or name.
4. Look at the label next to each family member's name in the result list.
5. If the record is approved, an option to download the Ayushman card appears. Save the PDF and keep a printout.

The same search can be run free at any empanelled hospital's Ayushman Mitra desk or at a Common Service Centre if you cannot use the app yourself.

What each card status means

• eKYC pending / Not verified: your household is in the database but authentication was never completed, or it did not go through. Restart self e-KYC using Aadhaar OTP, face authentication, fingerprint or iris. Face authentication is the route to use when your mobile number is not linked to Aadhaar.
• Under process / awaiting approval: e-KYC is done and the record is sitting with the state-level (L2) approver. This is the most common reason a card has not appeared yet, and approval is usually completed within a few days.
• Approved: the card is generated and downloadable. A printout of the verified card is enough to take cashless treatment.
• Rejected: the approver has turned down the record, most often because of a photograph that does not match Aadhaar, or a name or date-of-birth mismatch between Aadhaar and the beneficiary record. Correct the details through the update option in the Ayushman App and submit again.
• No record found: the search itself found nothing for your household. This is not a pending application, it is an eligibility question, and it is covered further down.

Checking status for a 70-plus (Ayushman Vay Vandana) application

Senior citizens aged 70 and above are eligible irrespective of income, and their status is checked through exactly the same Beneficiary login and search. Two points are worth knowing while you wait:

• The system reads Aadhaar date of birth as the reference for age. If the Aadhaar year of birth is wrong or approximate, the record may not surface at all under the 70-plus route.
• A senior already covered by CGHS, ECHS or Ayushman CAPF must choose between that scheme and PM-JAY, so a pending record can be held up by that choice. Private health insurance and ESIC membership do not disqualify a 70-plus applicant.

How to track pre-authorisation status at a hospital

Once you are admitted, there is no beneficiary-side portal for the claim. The sequence is:

1. Report to the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra desk with your Ayushman card and Aadhaar.
2. The Arogya Mitra verifies identity and raises a pre-authorisation request to the State Health Agency.
3. Ask the Arogya Mitra for the pre-authorisation or claim reference number and for the current stage: raised, queried, approved or rejected.
4. Once approved, treatment proceeds cashless. You should not be asked to pay for any covered item.

If the hospital says approval is pending for an unreasonable time, or asks you to pay for something the scheme covers, call 14555 with that reference number and the hospital name.

What to do when the search returns no record

A blank result usually means the household is not in the SECC 2011 identified database or your state's approved additional database, and you are under 70. There is no route to add a household on request, so the step here is not to reapply but to raise the inclusion question with the State Health Agency of your state. Residents of a state or union territory that has not implemented PM-JAY, such as West Bengal, will not find a record either.

Also check that you are not searching under the wrong family identifier. A household that already holds a card under a different family ID can show as a duplicate rather than as a fresh pending record.

Where to escalate a status query

• National PM-JAY helpline: 14555 or 1800-111-565, available 24x7 since 24 August 2018.
• Beneficiary portal: beneficiary.nha.gov.in.
• Grievance portal: the Centralised Grievance Redressal Management System on the National Health Authority website, for complaints about denial of cashless treatment or a stalled card.
• At the hospital: the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra desk, for anything relating to admission and pre-authorisation.
• State Health Agency: for disputes about whether your household should be in the beneficiary database at all.

Keep in mind that PM-JAY is free at every stage. No hospital, agent or intermediary can charge you to check status, to make an Ayushman card or for treatment covered under the scheme.