Ayushman Vay Vandana 2026: the 70-plus cover and your hospital

In October 2024 the government extended AB PM-JAY to every citizen aged 70 and above, regardless of income, through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card. By 31 December 2025 more than 96.73 lakh cards had been issued and 10.33 lakh admissions worth ₹2,154.37 crore had been authorised. For hospitals this is a new, growing and cashless patient segment with its own rules on empanelment, claims and records.

The scheme in numbers

AB PM-JAY covers 12 crore families, the economically weakest 40 percent of the population, with ₹5 lakh per family per year (PIB, 12 December 2025). The expansion announced on 29 October 2024 added all senior citizens aged 70 and above, an estimated 6 crore people in 4.5 crore families, irrespective of socio-economic status, with ₹5 lakh of free treatment a year.

Sources: PIB releases of 12 December 2025 and 3 February 2026, both reporting written replies in the Rajya Sabha. The average authorised admission works out to just under ₹21,000. Between October and December 2025 alone, authorised admissions rose by about 2.4 lakh and the authorised amount by about ₹413 crore.

Where seniors can be treated

Under the portability feature of PM-JAY, a Vay Vandana beneficiary can be treated at any empanelled hospital in the country, 31,466 at the time of a July 2025 reply, including 14,194 private providers. Outlook Money, citing a February 2026 reply in the Lok Sabha, put the network at 33,270 hospitals, 17,537 government and 15,733 private. The NHA has issued Hospital Empanelment and Management guidelines that set the process and standards for empanelment (PIB).

What this means for hospitals

The patient is older, more likely to carry several chronic conditions, and arrives with a cashless entitlement that no private insurer would have sold at that age. Three operational consequences follow.

• Empanelment is worth reconsidering for hospitals that stayed out of PM-JAY because the original beneficiary base was poor. The 70-plus segment includes middle-class families who would otherwise pay cash, and it is covered irrespective of income.
• Claims discipline matters. Pre-authorisation, package selection and document upload follow the PM-JAY workflow; a hospital doing 50 senior admissions a month needs that inside the HMIS, not in a separate browser tab.
• ABHA linking is part of the flow. PM-JAY is among the programmes feeding ABHA-linked records, and the NHA's incentive scheme pays a facility ₹200 per claim or 10 percent of the claim, whichever is lower, capped at ₹1 crore, for PM-JAY claims filed through the National Health Claims Exchange in FHIR format.

Healthixio handles PM-JAY registration, pre-authorisation and discharge documentation inside the patient record and links the record to ABHA at discharge. For a scheme desk drowning in uploads, that is the difference between two staff and one. Four checks worth building into the admission routine:

1. Verify the card at admission on the NHA beneficiary portal or the Ayushman app before treatment starts, not at discharge.
2. Select the package and raise pre-authorisation on the day of admission, so the cover is confirmed while the patient is still in the ward.
3. Create or capture the ABHA at admission, because PM-JAY records link to it and the NHCX claim incentive depends on it.
4. Track authorised amounts against the ₹5 lakh annual cover, so a second admission in the same year does not become a surprise cash bill.

How a senior gets the card

1. Go to the NHA beneficiary portal or open the Ayushman app.
2. Log in with a mobile number and the captcha.
3. Choose the enrol option and complete Aadhaar e-KYC.
4. Enter personal details and family member details.
5. Download the card; Outlook Money reports approval in about 15 minutes.

Steps as described by Outlook Money, 4 February 2026. Hospitals can help. A front desk that enrols a 72-year-old walk-in patient on the spot turns a cash patient into a covered one, and the ABHA creation flow already collects the same Aadhaar OTP.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an income limit for the Vay Vandana card?

No. The October 2024 expansion covers all citizens aged 70 and above irrespective of socio-economic status, according to the Ministry of Health's replies in Parliament reported by PIB. The cover is ₹5 lakh a year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation at any empanelled hospital, and enrolment is through Aadhaar e-KYC on the NHA portal or app.

How many hospitals accept the card?

PIB reported 31,466 empanelled hospitals, including 14,194 private, in July 2025. Outlook Money, citing a February 2026 parliamentary reply, reported 33,270, of which 15,733 are private. The card is portable, so a senior can be admitted at any empanelled hospital in any state, not only in the state that issued the card.

Does a hospital need separate empanelment for Vay Vandana?

The sources reviewed here describe Vay Vandana as a category within AB PM-JAY, with admissions authorised under the same scheme and treatment available at PM-JAY empanelled hospitals. A hospital already empanelled treats these patients under the existing Hospital Empanelment and Management guidelines; one that is not would apply under those guidelines.