The Union Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Sanjay Lohia launched NPS Swasthya, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s (PFRDA) initiative that brings retirement savings and health protection together under the National Pension System, on the occasion of NPS Diwas. Medi Assist has become the first Health Benefit Administrator (HBA) for the initiative, providing the digital infrastructure for claims administration and service coordination.
Medi Assist’s role
As HBA, Medi Assist enables a digital platform to the subscribers, healthcare providers, CRAs, and the insurance companies for seamless delivery of the NPS Swasthya vision. Subscribers will use Medi Assist’s MAven app, integrated with the CRA API, to view their NPS and NPS Swasthya balances and account information in one place, alongside their health benefits. Health benefits administration will be delivered on the same platform, and coordination with the pension funds and insurance companies will be managed by Medi Assist’s platforms.
What NPS Swasthya offers subscribers
NPS Swasthya combines an NPS Swasthya investment account with a separate, mandatory top-up health insurance policy to provide immediate and predictable cover for healthcare expenses, all delivered instantly and seamlessly via the HBA platform. Up to 25% of the subscriber’s own contributions can be withdrawn for eligible outpatient and inpatient expenses, with no cap on the number of withdrawals and no minimum waiting period between them. Payments are made directly to the healthcare provider.
Subscriber safeguards and regulatory oversight
NPS Swasthya is built with strong protections for subscriber data. Information can be shared only where it is necessary, proportionate and tied to a specific purpose, and only with the subscriber’s recorded consent or another lawful basis. Subscribers will also have a single point of contact for grievances through PFRDA’s Pension Sahayak platform, covering issues across Pension Funds, CRAs, HBA and insurers.
Satish Gidugu, CEO, Medi Assist Group, said: “Retirement planning and healthcare needs are closely connected, and NPS Swasthya is a meaningful step towards addressing them through a more coordinated approach. Our role is to help make the subscriber experience simpler to navigate and support collaboration across the pension and healthcare ecosystem. As the ecosystem evolves, our focus will be on building a trusted, responsive digital healthcare journey that can support subscribers’ needs at different stages of life.”
Sumit Shukla, MD & CEO, Axis Pension Fund, said: “Healthcare costs are among the biggest risks to a retirement plan. NPS Swasthya gives subscribers a dedicated corpus for medical needs within the NPS framework, so that their long-term retirement savings can stay invested for the purpose they were meant for. As a participating Pension Fund, our responsibility is to manage these savings with the same discipline that governs every NPS account. PFRDA has laid a strong foundation, and we are glad to help take it to subscribers across the country.”