Delhi Ayushman Card (Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY in Delhi)

What is the Delhi Ayushman Card?

Delhi Ayushman Card is the health assurance card issued to eligible Delhi families under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), combined with a state top-up funded by the Government of NCT of Delhi. Together the two components give an eligible family cashless treatment worth Rs 10 lakh per year; Rs 5 lakh from the central scheme and Rs 5 lakh from Delhi.

Delhi was the last major jurisdiction to join PM-JAY. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced the decision in February 2025, the Delhi cabinet cleared it with the Rs 5 lakh top-up, the memorandum of understanding with the Centre was signed on 5 April 2025, and Union Health Minister J P Nadda and the Chief Minister launched the scheme in Delhi on 10 April 2025, distributing the first Ayushman health cards to city residents. Until that date, a Delhi resident carrying a PM-JAY entitlement from another state could use it in a Delhi hospital, but Delhi itself issued no cards.

The card is not an insurance policy that you buy and it is not a discount card. PM-JAY is an entitlement-based scheme: the government already holds a beneficiary database, and the card simply establishes that a particular person belongs to a family on that list. Nothing is deducted from a salary, no premium is paid, and the cover does not lapse for non-payment.

Two features of PM-JAY are worth stating plainly because they differ from private insurance:

• Pre-existing diseases are covered from day one. There is no waiting period.
• There is no cap on family size or age. A family of nine and a family of two hold the same entitlement, and there is no upper age limit.

Who is eligible for the Delhi Ayushman Card?

You can get a Delhi Ayushman Card if:

• Your family appears in the PM-JAY beneficiary database for Delhi. Search your own name on the beneficiary portal. This is the only reliable test.
• You are a resident of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, which is what brings the Rs 5 lakh Delhi top-up into play on top of the central Rs 5 lakh.
• You can complete Aadhaar-based e-KYC, by OTP, fingerprint, iris scan or face authentication.

Separately, under Ayushman Vay Vandana, every citizen aged 70 years and above is entitled to PM-JAY cover irrespective of income. A senior citizen whose family is already covered under PM-JAY receives an additional cover of their own rather than sharing the family's, and Aadhaar is accepted as the age proof.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• Your family is not in the PM-JAY beneficiary database. This is the point that causes the most disappointment. PM-JAY is not an open scheme that anyone can apply to join. You cannot add yourself to the list by filling a form. Searching the portal and finding no record means you are not currently entitled, and the route then is to ask the Delhi State Health Agency whether any additional state category applies to you.
• You are not a Delhi resident and are looking for the Delhi Rs 5 lakh top-up. Your own state's PM-JAY entitlement still travels with you and is usable at empanelled hospitals in Delhi under portability, but the Delhi top-up is not.
• You are under 70 and outside the identified categories, with no state category covering you.
• You cannot complete Aadhaar e-KYC at all. Aadhaar is the identity spine of card creation, and no card is issued without it.

There is no separate income certificate to file, no caste certificate and no application fee. The eligibility work was done when the beneficiary database was built; your job is to find your name in it and complete the e-KYC.

What documents are required for the Delhi Ayushman Card?

How to apply for the Delhi Ayushman Card online

1. Open the official beneficiary portal at beneficiary.nha.gov.in, or install the Ayushman App from the app store.
2. Choose the Beneficiary login, enter your mobile number, and verify the OTP along with the captcha.
3. In the search screen, set State: Delhi, choose the scheme PM-JAY, and search for yourself by Aadhaar number, family ID, ration card number or name — whichever search option the portal offers for your record.
4. If your record appears, look at the status column. "Not generated" means the card can be created; "Approved" means a card already exists and can be downloaded.
5. Select your name and start e-KYC. Choose the authentication method that works for you; Aadhaar OTP if your mobile is linked to Aadhaar, face authentication through the app if it is not, or fingerprint or iris at an assisted centre.
6. Capture or upload the photograph, confirm the family and address details shown, and submit.
7. Wait for approval. Records that pass verification are usually approved quickly; some are held for manual approval by the state health agency.
8. Once the status shows approved, use Download Card to save the Ayushman card as a PDF, and print a copy for the family file.

How to apply for the Delhi Ayushman Card offline

1. Go to an empanelled hospital in Delhi and ask for the Ayushman Mitra desk or the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra. Every empanelled hospital has one.
2. Alternatively, visit a Common Service Centre (CSC), or attend an Ayushman camp held by the district administration or a municipal ward.
3. Carry your Aadhaar card, and a ration card or family identification document if you have one.
4. The operator will search the beneficiary database, complete your biometric e-KYC with a fingerprint scanner, and capture your photograph.
5. Collect the acknowledgement, and collect or download the card once it is approved.

Card creation is free on every one of these routes. A CSC may charge a small government-notified service fee for assisted work, but no one may charge you for the card itself.

How do I use the Delhi Ayushman Card at a hospital?

1. Check that the hospital is empanelled under PM-JAY before planned treatment, using the Find Hospital tool on the PM-JAY portal with Delhi as the state. A card is worthless at a non-empanelled hospital.
2. Report to the Ayushman Mitra desk on arrival with your card and Aadhaar.
3. The Ayushman Mitra verifies your identity biometrically, checks the available balance in your family's cover for the year, and raises the pre-authorisation request for the treatment package.
4. Treatment proceeds cashless once pre-authorisation is approved. Covered care includes hospitalisation, surgery, day-care procedures, diagnostics, medicines, ICU care, three days of pre-hospitalisation and fifteen days of post-hospitalisation expenses within the package rate.
5. Pay nothing at the counter for a covered package. If a hospital asks a PM-JAY beneficiary to pay for a treatment covered under the scheme, that is a reportable violation, not a normal charge.

Why Ayushman card applications fail, and what to do

• Name not found in the beneficiary database. The most common outcome, and it is not a technical error, it means the family is not currently entitled. Ask at an Ayushman camp or the district health office whether a state category covers you.
• Aadhaar-linked mobile number missing, so OTP e-KYC fails. Use face authentication in the Ayushman App or biometric e-KYC at a CSC or hospital instead.
• Name or date of birth mismatch between Aadhaar and the beneficiary record. Correct the Aadhaar record first, then retry the e-KYC.
• Fingerprints not reading, common among elderly and manual workers. Switch to iris or face authentication rather than repeating the fingerprint attempt.
• Status stuck at "pending approval". Some records go to the state health agency for manual approval. Follow up through the helpline with your application reference rather than starting a fresh application, which creates a duplicate.
• Card made but hospital not empanelled. Check empanelment before admission, and remember that an emergency admission at a non-empanelled hospital cannot be converted into a PM-JAY case afterwards.

Where do I get help with the Delhi Ayushman Card?

• National Ayushman Bharat helpline: 14555 or 1800-111-565, available in multiple languages for eligibility, card creation, hospital and grievance queries.
• Ayushman Mitra desk at any empanelled hospital in Delhi, which is the fastest route for a problem arising during admission.
• Beneficiary portal at beneficiary.nha.gov.in for card status and download, and the National Health Authority at nha.gov.in for scheme documents.
• Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi, at health.delhi.gov.in, and the Delhi State Health Agency for state top-up and empanelment questions.
• Grievance portal under PM-JAY for a written complaint against a hospital that refused cashless treatment, demanded payment, or denied admission to a cardholder.

Three rules protect you. The Ayushman card is free: nobody may charge for making it. No official will ever ask for your Aadhaar OTP or bank OTP to create a card. And a hospital empanelled under PM-JAY cannot ask a cardholder to pay for a treatment covered under the package list; if it does, call 14555 from the hospital itself rather than after discharge.

How to check your Delhi Ayushman Card application status

Once you have started e-KYC for a Delhi Ayushman Card, use any of these routes to track what stage the record is at.

1. Beneficiary portal check. Go to beneficiary.nha.gov.in, log in with your mobile number and OTP, and search yourself again with State set to Delhi and scheme PM-JAY. The status field against your name will read as one of the following:
   • Not generated: your family is in the beneficiary list but e-KYC has not been completed yet.
   • KYC in process or pending approval: e-KYC has been submitted and is waiting on verification, sometimes because the record needs manual approval by the Delhi State Health Agency rather than an automatic one.
   • Approved: the card has been created and can be downloaded from the same screen.
   • Rejected: the e-KYC attempt did not go through; the portal usually shows a short reason such as a document or biometric mismatch.
2. Ayushman App check. The mobile app mirrors the same status against your profile once you log in with your registered number, and is often quicker to refresh than the desktop portal on a slow connection.
3. SMS confirmation. Many approvals trigger an SMS to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number once the card is generated; treat this as a prompt to log in and download the card rather than as the only proof, since the portal record is authoritative.
4. Follow up in person if status is stuck. If a record stays at "pending approval" for an extended period, go back to the same Common Service Centre, Ayushman camp, or hospital Ayushman Mitra desk where the e-KYC was done, and ask them to check the case status using your application or acknowledgement reference. Do not start a fresh e-KYC attempt while an earlier one is still pending, since that can create a duplicate record and delay both.
5. Helpline follow-up. Call the national Ayushman Bharat helpline on 14555 or 1800-111-565 with your Aadhaar number or beneficiary reference to ask for the current status directly, particularly useful when the portal shows no change for several days.
6. For the 70-plus Vay Vandana cover, the status check works the same way on the same portal and app, searched under the individual's own Aadhaar rather than the family head's record, since this cover is issued to the senior citizen personally.