Software glitches delay health cards

A centrally-sponsored scheme,RSBY provides cashless health insurance worth Rs 30,000 to BPL families across the country. The facility is provided by selected insurance providers which provide the insurance cover for a year. The insurance cover has already expired in 59 districts. By June 30,it will expire in nine more districts.

The situation,say health officials,is because the insurance providers have not been able to get their new softwares for the scheme approved from the Centre.

The scheme was recently declared as one of the thrust areas of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s government,after which extra officials were appointed for the proper implementation of the scheme in the state. The state government had also agreed to implement the Centre’s initiative to increase the memory space of RSBY smart cards from 32 kilobytes to 64 kilobytes.

Because of these changes,the scheme was already delayed in the state and as per the earlier arrangements,the three insurance companies — ICICI Lombard,Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance — had to start making new smart cards by June 18.

However,the new softwares designed by the Third Party Associates (TPAs — which assist the insurance companies in implementation of the scheme) have not been cleared by the Centre till date. “The companies are awaiting software clearance from the Government of India. All the TPAs have submitted their software which are at different stage of clearance. One of the softwares is expected to get a clearance within a week,after which the companies will start rolling out the new cards,” said Alok Kumar,Chief Executive Officer of RSBY.

Officials of the health department said that it was one of the mandatory requirements of the tender that the selected insurance companies should get their softwares certified by the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate of the Government of India. “One of the TPAs had submitted their software to the certification council but the council found some problem in the software. The companies are now trying to resolve it. Without clearance,it will be risky to allow the companies to make the smart cards,as that could lead to loop holes in the entire system,” explained a senior RSBY official.

Kumar agreed that because of the delay in the rolling out of the card,the beneficiaries are left without any insurance coverage. He said that because of the change in card capacity,the new softwares are being developed which has more checks and balances than the earlier softwares.