Ayushman Bharat cardholders in Dhamtari district are being turned away from cashless treatment and asked to pay cash at private hospitals, after the scheme’s verification portal stopped recognising older beneficiaries for nearly three weeks. Dhamtari’s Chief Medical and Health Officer, Dr. A.K. Tondar, confirmed to Patrika that the portal is facing a server-down issue and that guidance is being sought from higher authorities.
Ayushman Bharat is meant to let eligible families walk into an empanelled hospital and get treated without paying upfront, with the hospital billing the scheme directly instead of the patient. That promise depends entirely on the verification portal correctly matching a beneficiary’s card to their record at the point of admission, which is the exact step that has been failing in Dhamtari.
What is going wrong on the portal
According to Patrika’s reporting, the problem has run for about 20 days. When new data is entered, the portal’s API generates a fresh member ID instead of matching the beneficiary’s existing record, so older cardholders cannot be located by searching their Aadhaar number or ration card number. Those searches return “Record Not Found,” and new card creation has also stalled.
Dhamtari has 19 private hospitals empanelled under the scheme, alongside government health institutions, offering cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year. With the portal faltering, that cashless promise has not held for several families this month, Patrika reported.
Who has been affected
Patrika’s investigation named several Dhamtari families who paid out of pocket despite holding valid Ayushman cards. Tilochan Devangan and Deshna Thakur took a seriously ill relative to a private hospital on Bastar Road; their medical report was sent to the insurer, but approval had not come a week later, so they paid in cash.
Vinod Kumar of Gattasilli village needed leg surgery for his father at a private hospital in Dhamtari city, but his name did not appear on the portal despite his card, so the family paid cash. Kaushilya Bai of Markatola village faced the same outcome when her son was admitted to a private hospital on Bastar Road and the portal was down at the time.
How many cardholders are at stake
Dhamtari district had targeted 8,51,555 people for Ayushman cards. Of these, 8,08,908, or about 94.99 percent, have been issued a card so far, Patrika reported, leaving 42,647 people still pending. A prolonged portal outage affects both groups: pending applicants cannot get new cards made, and a portion of those who already hold cards cannot be verified for treatment when they need it.
| Total beneficiaries targeted, Dhamtari | 8,51,555 |
| Cards issued so far | 8,08,908 (94.99%) |
| Cards still pending | 42,647 |
| Empanelled private hospitals | 19 |
| Cashless treatment limit | Rs 5 lakh per family, per year |
| Duration of portal issue | About 20 days (as of October 26) |
What officials have said
Dr. A.K. Tondar, the Chief Medical and Health Officer for Dhamtari, told Patrika the portal is “facing a server-down issue” and that the district would seek guidance from higher authorities so beneficiaries can access the scheme’s full benefits. No timeline for a fix has been given publicly so far, and no state-level Ayushman Bharat authority has issued a separate statement on the Dhamtari outage.
What cardholders can do in the meantime
Families who are billed in cash at an empanelled hospital because of the portal fault should keep every original bill, discharge summary and the hospital’s written note of the technical failure. These records are typically what the scheme’s grievance process asks for when a beneficiary later seeks reimbursement or a review of a denied claim.
Patients should also ask the treating hospital’s Ayushman Mitra desk, present at empanelled hospitals to help with scheme paperwork, to log the specific error message shown, since “Record Not Found” and a failed Aadhaar search point to a different technical fault than a simple network outage.
For applicants whose card has not been issued at all, the 42,647 pending in Dhamtari, the same backend fault means a fresh application cannot be matched to prior data either, so repeated attempts at the same kiosk are unlikely to resolve it until the server-side problem is fixed.
Frequently asked questions
My Ayushman card shows “Record Not Found.” Does that mean my card is cancelled?
No. Patrika’s reporting indicates this is tied to the portal’s current server-down issue in Dhamtari, not a cancellation of individual cards. The district CMHO has acknowledged the fault.
Can I get my cash payment refunded once the portal is fixed?
No official reimbursement process for this specific outage has been announced yet. Keeping original bills and a hospital note of the technical failure is the safest step until the district or state health authority issues guidance.
Is this problem specific to Dhamtari, or affecting all of Chhattisgarh?
Patrika’s report covers Dhamtari district specifically. No statewide outage has been confirmed by a state health official as of this report.
Leave a Reply