Distribution of unique plastic cards to Employees State Insurance Corporation beneficiaries has been started to enable them avail treatment in any ESIC hospital across the country.
The first lot of 25 such magnetic cards were distributed in Bangalore recently, a Labour Ministry official said on Friday.
“With this card, an insured person under ESIC and family members can step into any of the ESI dispensaries or hospitals to avail treatment or can also use the card to get other services from ESIC branches,” he said.
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One card would be issued to the insured person and another to the family members, he said.
The project is being called as ‘Pehchan’ and 2.40 crore smart cards would be prepared under the scheme. The project is being executed by WIPRO under build, own, operate and transfer model.
The card will have a group photograph of all the family members and their biometric details will be stored in the Computer.
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Adequate safety measures have been provided in the card to prevent it from being forged, the official said.
The ‘Pehchan’ card will be valid for lifetime. A unique number will be assigned to each member so that he/she can continue using the card even in case of a change in job.
ESI manages 144 functioning hospitals and 1400 dispensaries across the country to provide services to its beneficiaries.
The process of collecting data for the Pehchan Cards would be completed in all states before August 2010.
Once it is completed, ESIC shall have a comprehensive data base consisting of the name, date of birth, address of the insured person, besides details of family members as well as fingerprints of all of them, the official said.
ESIC is also in the process of connecting all its offices as part of its e-governance drive and help subscribers get better services of various ESI schemes.