Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims Scheme

What is the Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims Scheme?

Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims Scheme is a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways scheme notified under Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which came into force with effect from 5 May 2025. The scheme entitles any person injured in a road accident involving a motor vehicle, on any category of road anywhere in India, to cashless hospital treatment of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for a maximum of seven days from the date of the accident.

The purpose is narrow and specific: remove money from the first hours after a crash. India recorded roughly 4.6 lakh road accidents and 1.68 lakh deaths in 2022, and a large share of those deaths came from delay, families arranging cash, hospitals asking for a deposit, victims being turned away or shifted. The scheme makes the hospital's payer the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund rather than the patient.

The scheme was subsequently taken to national scale and branded PM-RAHAT (Prime Minister – Road Accident Victims' Hospitalisation and Assured Treatment), launched on 13 February 2026, with the same Rs 1.5 lakh and seven-day parameters and a fully digital workflow linking police accident reporting to hospital records.

Key objectives

• Protect the golden hour by removing the payment barrier to emergency care.
• Ensure that no hospital demands a deposit before treating a road accident victim.
• Reduce road accident deaths in line with India's commitment under the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety to halve road deaths by 2030.
• Create a verifiable digital trail from accident report to hospital payment.

Main features

• Rs 1.5 lakh of cashless treatment per victim.
• Seven days maximum treatment period from the date of the accident.
• Applies on any road: national highway, state highway, district road or city street.
• No enrolment, no premium, no income test, no caste or category condition.
• The National Health Authority implements the scheme in coordination with police, hospitals and state health agencies; the State Road Safety Council is the nodal body at state level.
• Claims settled from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund within 10 days of approval.

Who is eligible for the Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims Scheme?

You are covered if:

• You are a victim of a road accident arising out of the use of a motor vehicle, on any road in India.
• You are hospitalised within 24 hours of the accident.
• You reach a designated hospital, or are stabilised at a non-designated hospital and then transferred.

Cover is universal within those limits. Indian citizens and foreign nationals are both covered, and cover does not depend on the insurance status of the vehicle involved, on who was at fault, or on the victim's income.

You are not eligible if:

• The victim is hospitalised more than 24 hours after the accident. This is the single hardest exclusion in the scheme.
• The injury did not arise from the use of a motor vehicle, a fall, an assault, or an industrial injury is outside the scheme even if it happened on a road.
• Rs 1.5 lakh has already been spent on that victim for that accident, or seven days have elapsed from the date of the accident. Treatment may continue, but the cost after that point is not covered here.
• You are looking for compensation for loss of life, income or property, that is a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal matter, or the separate hit-and-run compensation scheme, not this one.

What documents are required under the scheme?

How to apply for cashless treatment after a road accident

There is no application form and no advance registration. What follows are the steps that actually secure the entitlement.

1. Call 112 at once. The Emergency Response Support System operator can send an ambulance and identify the nearest designated hospital.
2. Move the victim to the nearest designated hospital, which in practice means a hospital empanelled under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY that meets the scheme's requirements. Do not wait for police clearance to move an injured person.
3. Tell the hospital at admission that this is a road accident case so that it registers the case under the scheme rather than as a normal paying admission.
4. The hospital generates a treatment record on the Transaction Management System (TMS) portal, which is transmitted to police through the electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) platform.
5. Ensure the accident is reported to police. Police authentication is required within 24 hours in ordinary cases and 48 hours in critical cases, and the case cannot be settled without it.
6. Refuse any demand for a deposit for the covered portion. If a designated hospital asks for money within the Rs 1.5 lakh limit, escalate to the district Grievance Redressal Officer or the State Health Agency.
7. Keep the treatment ID and discharge summary, which you will need for any later insurance or Motor Accident Claims Tribunal claim.

What if the nearest hospital is not a designated hospital?

Under the scheme a non-designated hospital is still expected to provide stabilisation treatment before the victim is transferred to a designated facility. Reported scheme parameters allow stabilisation cover of up to 24 hours in non-life-threatening cases and up to 48 hours in life-threatening cases. The practical rule for a family at the scene is simple: get to the nearest hospital that can save the life, and let the transfer to a designated hospital be arranged afterwards.

How much benefit does the scheme provide?

• Rs 1.5 lakh per road accident victim, per accident.
• Seven days of treatment from the date of the accident.
• Money is paid hospital to fund. The victim never handles it and never files a reimbursement claim.
• Payments are released from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund within 10 days of the State Health Agency approving the hospital's claim.

The Motor Vehicle Accident Fund is financed by contributions from general insurance companies for insured vehicles and by Government of India budgetary support for uninsured and hit-and-run cases. That is why a victim of an uninsured vehicle is not left uncovered.

Separately, families of those killed in hit-and-run accidents are entitled to Rs 2 lakh under the hit-and-run compensation scheme. This is a different entitlement from the Rs 1.5 lakh treatment cover and is claimed through the district administration.

How the claim is processed

1. The hospital opens the case on TMS and receives a treatment or patient registration ID.
2. Police file the eDAR report, and the eDAR victim ID is mapped against the TMS treatment ID.
3. Police authenticate the case within 24 hours, or 48 hours where the case is critical.
4. The hospital raises its claim on discharge, within the Rs 1.5 lakh and seven-day limits.
5. The State Health Agency verifies the claim against the treatment record and the accident report.
6. Payment is released from the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund within 10 days of approval.

Common problems and how to resolve them

• Hospital demands a deposit — cite the scheme and escalate to the district Grievance Redressal Officer and the State Health Agency.
• Hospital says it is not designated; accept stabilisation treatment there, then insist on transfer to a designated hospital.
• Accident not reported to police, the claim will fail authentication; get the report filed even if the case looks minor.
• Victim reached hospital after 24 hours, the entitlement lapses, and the family should pursue insurance or a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal claim instead.
• Bill exceeds Rs 1.5 lakh, the balance is payable by the family, health insurance, or the vehicle's motor insurer.

Help and grievance redressal

• 112: Emergency Response Support System, for ambulance dispatch and the nearest designated hospital
• 1033: National Highway helpline for highway accidents and ambulance assistance
• District Grievance Redressal Officer appointed under the scheme, for complaints against a hospital
• State Health Agency, for claim verification and payment disputes
• Ministry of Road Transport and Highways at morth.gov.in, for scheme notifications and updates

No victim or family is ever required to pay for the covered portion of treatment, and no agent, tout or hospital staff member may charge a fee for "getting the case registered" under the scheme.