Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY)

What is Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana?

Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) is Odisha's universal health assurance scheme, launched on 15 February 2017 and run by the Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of Odisha. BSKY was built on a simple two-part promise: free treatment for everybody at every state government health facility, and cashless treatment at empanelled private hospitals for families holding a BSKY health card.

BSKY covered roughly 70 lakh families between 2017 and 2024, and more than 1.1 crore patient episodes were treated under it. Unlike an insurance product, BSKY was an assurance scheme, the state paid hospitals directly out of a trust fund rather than buying a policy through an insurer.

What does the scheme pay for?

Under the BSKY design the annual cover was Rs 5 lakh per family, with a higher ceiling of Rs 7 lakh for women members of the family. The higher women's limit was one of BSKY's distinguishing features and was intended to remove the household bargaining that often leaves a woman's treatment last in line.

Cover under the scheme includes:

• Free out-patient and in-patient care at every Odisha government health facility from sub-centre and PHC up to the district headquarters hospital, medical college and referral institution, for any patient.
• Cashless secondary and tertiary treatment at empanelled private hospitals for card-holding families.
• Treatment at empanelled hospitals outside Odisha, including national referral centres such as Tata Memorial Hospital and CMC Vellore.
• Conveyance assistance of Rs 2,000 for patients referred out of state.
• Diagnostics, medicines, surgery, implants and follow-up covered inside the package rate, so the family is not asked to pay at discharge.

Smart health cards for the scheme began to be distributed from 20 August 2021, replacing the earlier practice of presenting a ration card at the hospital help desk.

Who is eligible for the scheme in Odisha?

You are covered if:

• You are a permanent resident of Odisha.
• Your household holds a ration card under the National Food Security Act or under Odisha's own State Food Security Scheme.
• Your household appears in another beneficiary database notified by the state for the health scheme.
• You are a legal citizen of Odisha living outside the state, Odisha extended the scheme to residents seeking treatment elsewhere.

For specialised treatment in categories such as cancer, cardiac and kidney disease, the scheme also admitted families with an annual income of up to Rs 3 lakh.

You are not eligible for the cashless private-hospital component if:

• Your household does not appear in any of the notified beneficiary databases.
• You are seeking a procedure that is not in the approved package list.
• You are asking a hospital that has not been empanelled to bill the scheme.

One point is worth repeating because it causes the most confusion: free treatment at Odisha government hospitals is not restricted to card holders. Every patient walking into a state facility is entitled to it. The card determines only whether an empanelled private hospital can bill the state instead of billing you.

What changed in 2025?

Odisha's health assurance was restructured after the 2024 change of government. BSKY was renamed and reworked as Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY), and Odisha became the 34th state or union territory to implement Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY in January 2025. Both schemes were rolled out together from February 2025.

Under the converged arrangement:

• Around 3.5 crore people in Odisha are to be issued health cards.
• Cover was announced as up to Rs 5 lakh in rural areas and up to Rs 6 lakh in urban areas under GJAY.
• Beneficiaries gained access to about 27,000 empanelled hospitals nationwide through the PM-JAY network, rather than only the state's own empanelled list.

Families who were covered under BSKY were not cut off. The practical change for a patient is which card is presented at the hospital desk and how much wider the hospital choice has become.

What documents do you need at the hospital?

How to use the scheme and get treated cashless

1. Locate an empanelled hospital before admission. Every empanelled facility displays the scheme signage, and the list is published on the state health scheme portal at gjay.odisha.gov.in.
2. Go to the hospital's scheme help desk, usually staffed by an Arogya Mitra or a state-appointed coordinator, rather than to the general billing counter.
3. Present the health card and the patient's Aadhaar so the desk can authenticate the family against the beneficiary database.
4. Let the hospital raise a pre-authorisation request for the proposed package. Treatment under an approved package is billed to the state, not to you.
5. Complete treatment and sign the discharge summary. You should not be asked to pay for anything inside the approved package.
6. Where a district hospital refers you outside Odisha, collect the referral letter — it is what lets an out-of-state empanelled hospital treat you under the scheme and lets you claim the Rs 2,000 conveyance assistance.

How to get the health card if your family has not received one

1. Check whether the household appears on the beneficiary list at the Block Development Office, the urban local body ward office or the nearest government hospital help desk, carrying the ration card and Aadhaar.
2. If the household is on the list but the card was never delivered, ask the help desk to reprint or re-issue it against the household identifier.
3. If the household is not on the list, raise the omission with the Block Medical Officer or the Chief District Medical Officer, since inclusion is decided from state databases and not by an individual application form.
4. Keep the ration card handy in the meantime, hospital help desks routinely accept an NFSA or State Food Security Scheme card while a health card is pending.

Common problems and what to do about them

• Hospital asks for money despite the card. Ask the help desk to show the pre-authorisation status. A hospital cannot charge you for an item inside an approved package.
• Name mismatch between card and Aadhaar. Authentication fails at admission. Get the record corrected at the district health office before a planned admission rather than during an emergency.
• Procedure is outside the package list. Some elective and cosmetic procedures are excluded by design; the help desk should tell you in writing.
• Hospital is not empanelled. No amount of paperwork makes a non-empanelled private hospital billable to the scheme. Confirm empanelment before admission.
• Card not received at all. Take the ration card to the nearest government hospital help desk; treatment at a government facility does not wait on the card.

Where to complain

Grievances under Odisha's health assurance scheme go first to the hospital's own scheme help desk, then to the Chief District Medical and Public Health Officer (CDMO) of your district, and then to the State Health Assurance Society under the Health and Family Welfare Department. The scheme portal at gjay.odisha.gov.in carries the grievance link and the current district-wise contact list.

A card issued under the scheme is free. No agent, hospital employee or middleman may charge a fee for issuing, activating or "getting approval on" a health card.