Karunya Benevolent Fund (KBF)

What is the Karunya Benevolent Fund?

Karunya Benevolent Fund (KBF), often written in Malayalam as Karunya Benevolent Fund and spoken of simply as the "Karunya scheme", is a Kerala government health assistance fund that pays for the treatment of poor patients suffering from a short list of expensive, long-running illnesses. According to the State Health Agency, Kerala, the fund exists to help "under-privileged people suffering from acute ailments like Cancer, Haemophilia, Kidney and Heart diseases and for Palliative Care."

Karunya Benevolent Fund is unusual in how it is financed. The money does not come from a normal budget head, it is raised through the sale of the Karunya lottery ticket by the Kerala State Lotteries Department under the Taxes Department. The claims side of the scheme is administered by the State Health Agency (SHA), the same body that runs Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP), Kerala's version of Ayushman Bharat. That shared administration is the reason KBF uses the same empanelled hospital network and the same digital claim system as KASP.

Key features

• Cashless treatment at KASP-empanelled hospitals; no reimbursement paperwork for the family.
• Assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh for tertiary care and up to Rs 3 lakh for kidney ailments, with haemophilia treatment supported without a stated ceiling.
• Covers cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, haemophilia and palliative care only.
• Meant for families outside KASP, so the two schemes do not overlap.
• Funded from Karunya lottery proceeds, not from a loan or an insurance premium.

Who is eligible for the Karunya Benevolent Fund?

You can use KBF if:

• You are a resident of Kerala. Residency is a stated condition of the fund.
• Your annual family income is below Rs 3 lakh, evidenced by an income certificate from the Village Officer.
• You are not eligible for benefits under Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi. KBF is designed to catch the families who fall just outside the KASP list.
• The patient is being treated for one of the covered ailments — cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, haemophilia, or palliative care.
• The treatment is taken at a KASP-empanelled hospital.

You are not eligible if:

• Your family income is Rs 3 lakh a year or more.
• You are already a KASP beneficiary: in that case you claim under KASP, and a parallel KBF claim for the same episode is not entertained.
• You are not a resident of Kerala.
• The illness is outside the five covered categories. KBF does not fund general surgery, orthopaedic procedures, maternity care or accident trauma unless they fall inside a covered category.
• The hospital is not empanelled. Treatment taken at a non-empanelled hospital cannot be converted into a KBF claim afterwards.

How much assistance does KBF give?

The State Health Agency states that coverage varies by condition. Tertiary care is supported up to Rs 2 lakh, kidney ailments up to Rs 3 lakh, and haemophilia patients are supported without a published ceiling, reflecting the open-ended cost of clotting-factor therapy.

The most important point about the amount is that it is not handed to the patient. KBF operates as a cashless entitlement: the empanelled hospital raises a pre-authorisation request against the covered package, treats the patient without asking for money for covered items, and then settles the claim with the State Health Agency. A family that pays the hospital in cash and asks for the money back later is outside the scheme's design.

Through April 2026, the State Health Agency reports 83,069 beneficiaries and 4,54,208 claims, with a total claimed amount of roughly Rs 655 crore across the Karunya schemes.

What documents are required for KBF?

Keep the income certificate current. A certificate that has crossed its validity period is the single most common reason a first-time KBF request is sent back for correction.

How to apply for the Karunya Benevolent Fund

1. Confirm the hospital is KASP-empanelled. The network currently has 597 empanelled hospitals. The list is published on the State Health Agency site at sha.kerala.gov.in; if you are unsure, ask the hospital directly whether it handles Karunya claims.
2. Go to the Arogya Mitra or KASP help desk inside the hospital. Every empanelled hospital has this desk; it is the only place a KBF request can be started.
3. Produce your ration card, income certificate, Aadhaar and the diagnosis papers. The desk staff verify identity and check whether your family is already covered by KASP.
4. Let the hospital raise the pre-authorisation request on the digital claims system against the applicable treatment package.
5. Take the treatment cashlessly once approval comes through, and collect the approval reference number from the help desk for your own records.

There is no online self-application form for KBF, no application fee, and no agent is needed. The whole route runs through the hospital.

How to check the status of a KBF request

1. Ask the Arogya Mitra at the hospital for the pre-authorisation reference number and its current stage.
2. If the case is pending beyond the hospital's usual turnaround, ask the desk for the remark recorded by the State Health Agency against the request.
3. Call the State Health Agency, Kerala on 0471-4063121 with that reference number if the hospital cannot explain the delay.

Because the claim is settled between the hospital and the State Health Agency, the family's practical status check is always through the hospital desk first.

Why KBF requests get rejected, and how to fix them

• Income certificate above Rs 3 lakh or expired. Get a fresh certificate from the Village Officer with the correct current figure.
• The family is already a KASP beneficiary. Claim under KASP instead; the entitlement is not lost, only routed differently.
• Ailment outside the covered list. KBF is limited to cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, haemophilia and palliative care.
• Name or Aadhaar mismatch between the ration card and the hospital record. Correct the record before the pre-authorisation is resubmitted.
• Non-empanelled hospital. Shift to an empanelled hospital before starting a planned course of treatment, since past bills cannot be regularised.

Help and grievance route for KBF

• State Health Agency, Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram to 0471-4063121.
• Hospital Arogya Mitra desk for anything to do with a specific claim, since the reference number and the recorded remarks sit there.
• State Health Agency website, sha.kerala.gov.in, for the empanelled hospital list and current scheme notes.

No fee is payable to anyone for a KBF approval. If a middleman offers to "get Karunya sanctioned" for a payment, that is not part of the scheme.