BHARAT AROGYA YOJANA
11 Jun 2020 | BPCL
BHARAT AROGYA YOJANA: MORE THAN ASSURANCE, A FRIEND IN NEED
In the current tumultuous times, the adage “Health is wealth” is even more relevant than ever before. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, illness and the cost of treating it are a major worry for economically vulnerable families. A generous social welfare program by Bharat Petroleum is addressing this issue comprehensively for its extended family, for past several years.
When the wife of Vinay Kumar Sharma, who is working, as a contract workman, at Allahabad LPG Plant went into labour on 16th February, earlier this year, he did not worry of the expenses, as he was enrolled in Bharat Petroleum’s health insurance program ‘Bharat Arogya Yojana’ for the employees of the corporation’s business partners.
“It was almost unbelievable for me that I was bearing only a fraction of the cost of an insurance that not only covered me but also my family,” says Vinay Sharma, after his wife was discharged from hospital with a new born baby in her arm.
Many employees of our Retail Dealers, Bharatgas & MAK Distributors, Contractors and Vendors are lone breadwinner of their families and the financial burden of treatment adds to the family’s woes.
Bharat Arogya Yojana is therefore a boon for those belonging to economically vulnerable segments of the working population in the society.
A far-reaching initiative
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), the second-largest public sector oil-marketing company in India, has an institutionalized health insurance program for employees of their business partners, which was rolled out in 2015.
Multiple benefits
The benevolent scheme provides insurance that provides hospitalization expense cover of up to ₹1 lakh per year for health and accident to employees of BPCL’s business partners (fuel station dealers, Bharatgas and MAK lubricant distributors, PCVOs, as well as transporters and vendors). The insurance cover also extends to their spouse and dependent children up to the age of 25 years. The insurance, renewed each year, comes without any capping for any one illness, and includes maternity cover of ₹15,000 for normal delivery and ₹20,000 for C-section. Additionally, a ‘Personal Accident’ cover of ₹2 lakh is also made available for these employees.
One of the highlights of this thoughtfully implemented scheme is that pre-existing health conditions are covered from day one of the policy.
Conveniently, settlement of claims is on reimbursement basis, and cashless settlement is done through E-cards issued to staff members, which is accepted at more than 6,000 hospitals across the nation.
Bharat Arogya Yojana is designed to provide a big relief to the beneficiary, in insurance premiums. Indeed, 60 percent of the premium is paid by Bharat Petroleum and 25 percent is contributed by the business partner (dealer, distributor, contractor or public carrier vehicle operator (PCVO)), while only the balance 15 percent is borne by the beneficiary.
Scheme extended
The scheme is effective from the BPCL Foundation Day, i.e., from 24th of January, every year. Accordingly, the current phase of Bharat Arogya Yojana is effective from January 24, 2020 to January 23, 2021. Due to the entire nation battling the COVID-19 pandemic at present, many of the business partners requested BPCL to reopen the current 2020 phase of the scheme to enable them to enroll all their staff members who were left out and could not be enrolled initially. Considering this, the scheme was reopened in the month of April 2020 for a month to accommodate more employees of the business partners.
These employees are enrolled in the scheme through a software package that has been specially developed by BPCL, wherein business partners can nominate their staff members through their portal.
The sheer numbers tell about the popularity of the scheme. As many as 109,571 staff members (Retail: 71,801; LPG: 34,425; and Lubes: 3,345) have been enrolled this year. By covering the extended family under health insurance, BPCL has voluntarily walked an extra mile towards meeting its ambitious social welfare goals.
Last year 528 such beneficiaries availed the hospitalization claim, valuing more than 1.28 Crore and three claims for accidental death were also processed.
“The peace of mind that I have because of this scheme is my immediate ‘mental’ health benefit, apart from the physical cover,” says a beaming employee with one of Bharatgas distributor.