Policy Update
Tanisha Hooda
Background
Road accidents remain a major public health and road-safety challenge in India. Delays in reaching hospitals and receiving emergency medical treatment can worsen injuries and increase the risk of preventable deaths. Financial constraints may also delay access to timely treatment, particularly during the “Golden Hour,” when prompt medical intervention is critical for saving lives.
The Pradhan Mantri – Road Accident Victims’ Hospitalisation and Assured Treatment (PM-RAHAT) Scheme is a Government of India initiative designed to ensure that people injured in road accidents receive timely and cashless medical treatment without having to worry about the immediate cost of hospital care.
The scheme was launched for nationwide implementation on 13 February 2026, under the legal framework provided by Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Its main objective is to reduce deaths caused by delays in emergency treatment, particularly during the “Golden Hour”—the first hour after a serious injury, when quick medical attention can greatly improve a victim’s chances of survival. The detailed guidelines for implementing the scheme were notified through S.O. 2489(E) dated 4 June 2025.
Under PM-RAHAT, a person injured in a road accident involving a motor vehicle can receive cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh for a maximum of seven days from the date of the accident. The benefit applies to accidents occurring on any category of road, making the scheme applicable to a wide range of road-accident victims.
The policy is intended to remove financial barriers that could otherwise delay treatment. It also connects emergency services with healthcare facilities through the 112 Emergency Response Support System (ERSS). This allows an accident victim or a Good Samaritan—the person who helps an accident victim—to find the nearest designated hospital and seek ambulance assistance. Hospitals designated under the scheme include eligible hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), along with other hospitals that meet the prescribed requirements.
PM-RAHAT is implemented through coordination between State Health Agencies, hospitals, police authorities and emergency-response services. As of 31 July 2026, the scheme had been implemented across 34 States/Union Territories, benefiting 22,481 road-accident victims. During the same period, State Health Agencies approved hospital claims worth ₹12.59 crore, of which ₹10.56 crore had been paid to hospitals.
Functioning
PM-RAHAT functions through coordination among emergency-response services, police authorities, State Health Agencies, and designated hospitals. The scheme facilitates timely referral of road-accident victims, cashless treatment, and reimbursement of eligible hospital claims. Its functioning involves immediate treatment, emergency-response coordination, and claim processing.
1. Ensuring Immediate and Cashless Medical Treatment: PM RAHAT’s first major function is to ensure that road accident victims can receive immediate medical treatment without having to arrange money at the time of the accident. Under the scheme, an eligible victim is entitled to cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh for a maximum period of seven days. The scheme also provides stabilisation treatment for up to 24 hours in non-life-threatening cases and 48 hours in life-threatening cases. This is particularly important during the Golden Hour, when timely medical intervention can significantly improve a victim’s chances of survival. By removing the need for upfront payment, PM RAHAT seeks to prevent financial constraints from delaying emergency treatment.
2. Connecting Accident Response, Hospitals Claims through a Digital System: PM RAHAT creates a coordinated emergency-response system connecting accident victims, emergency services, police and hospitals. Through the 112 emergency helpline, victims, Good Samaritans or people present at the accident site can identify the nearest designated hospital and request ambulance assistance. The scheme also integrates the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ Electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) platform with the National Health Authority’s Transaction Management System (TMS 2.0). This enables the process to move digitally from accident reporting and police authentication to hospital admission, treatment, claim processing and payment, helping reduce delays in emergency care.
3. Creating a Financial Mechanism through the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund : PM RAHAT uses the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVAF) to support the financial side of cashless treatment. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) coordinates with MoRTH and insurance companies to ensure timely contributions to the Fund. For accidents involving insured vehicles, contributions from insurance companies help finance treatment provided under the scheme. The DFS Annual Report 2025–26 reported that insurance companies had contributed ₹504 crore to the account for insured vehicles as of December 2025. This mechanism helps ensure that the financial burden of eligible emergency treatment does not fall immediately on the accident victim.
4. Ensuring Timely Reimbursement to Hospitals: Another important function of PM RAHAT is to provide financial certainty to hospitals that treat accident victims under the scheme. Once treatment is provided and the claim is approved by the State Health Agency, the hospital is to receive reimbursement within 10 days. This is important because hospitals need assurance that the cost of treatment will be recovered even though the victim is not required to make an upfront payment. By linking cashless treatment with a defined reimbursement mechanism, PM RAHAT aims to encourage hospitals to provide continuous, uninterrupted emergency care.
5. Coordinating Different Institutions for Effective Implementation: PM RAHAT depends on coordination among several institutions, including MoRTH, DFS, insurance companies, police authorities, emergency services and designated hospitals. Each plays a role in ensuring that the victim moves smoothly from the accident site to hospital treatment and ultimately to claim settlement. DFS supports MoRTH in implementing the cashless treatment scheme and coordinates with insurance companies regarding their contributions to the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund. This institutional coordination helps bring together the medical, emergency-response and financial components of the scheme and supports its broader objective of ensuring timely treatment for road accident victims.
Performance
The initial performance of PM-RAHAT can be assessed through the progress of hospital treatment claims processed and settled under the scheme following its nationwide rollout in February 2026.
1. State-wise Claim Processing and Settlement: As of 28 July 2026, PM-RAHAT showed considerable inter-state variation in claims initiated, approved and settled. To illustrate the variation in scheme utilisation, five States were selected based on their relatively higher and lower levels of claims initiated, approved and settled, thereby providing a comparative view of implementation across States.
Figure 1: State-wise Claims Initiated, Approved and Settled under PM-RAHAT, as of 28 July 2026
Source: MoRTH, Government of India, Lok Sabha Question No. 1965, Annexure III (2026).
The variation across States indicates uneven utilisation of PM-RAHAT during its initial implementation phase. Higher claim volumes in some States may reflect differences in scheme utilisation and claim-processing capacity, while lower utilisation may indicate scope for strengthening awareness, registration and claim-processing mechanisms.
2. Overall Implementation and Beneficiary Coverage: As of 31 July 2026, PM-RAHAT had benefited 22,481 road accident victims across 34 States/UTs, indicating substantial early uptake following its nationwide rollout in February 2026. Of these, 18,149 cases were approved, while 3,674 cases were discharged due to no response from police within the prescribed timelines and 658 life-threatening cases were found ineligible by State Police. Financially, State Health Agencies had approved claims worth ₹12.59 crore, of which ₹10.56 crore had been paid to hospitals, representing approximately 84% of the approved claim value. However, around 16% of the approved claim value remained unpaid as of 31 July 2026, indicating scope for further improving the speed of claim settlement and fund disbursement.
Figure 2: PM-RAHAT Case Processing and Financial Settlement
Source: MoRTH, Government of India, PIB (12 August 2026), Implementation Status of PM RAHAT Scheme.
Figure 2 indicates that approximately 84% of the approved claim value had been paid to hospitals as of 31 July 2026. The remaining gap suggests scope for further improving the timeliness of reimbursement and fund disbursement.
3. Procedural Efficiency and Inter-agency Coordination: The initial implementation of PM-RAHAT also highlights the importance of coordination between hospitals and State Police in determining continued eligibility under the scheme. As of 31 July 2026, 3,674 cases were discharged because of no response from the police within the prescribed timelines, while 658 life-threatening cases were found ineligible by State Police. Together, these accounted for 4,332 cases, or about 19.3% of the 22,481 cases recorded under the scheme. This indicates that, alongside expanding utilisation, effective inter-agency coordination and timely police verification remain important for ensuring uninterrupted access to treatment under PM-RAHAT.
Figure 3: Status of PM-RAHAT Cases by Processing Outcome, as of 31 July 2026
| Case status | Number | Share of total |
| Cases approved | 18,149 | 80.7% |
| Discharged due to police non-response | 3,674 | 16.3% |
| Life-threatening cases found ineligible by State Police | 658 | 2.9% |
| Total | 22,481 | 100% |
Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, PIB (2026).
The distribution indicates that while the majority of cases were approved, police non-response and eligibility verification remained important procedural challenges during the initial implementation phase.
4. Supporting Road-Safety Infrastructure and Black-Spot Rectification: The implementation of PM-RAHAT operates alongside broader road-safety measures aimed at preventing serious accidents. As of April 2026, 16,542 accident-prone black spots had been identified on National Highways. Of these, 14,138 had received short-term safety improvements, while 6,649 had undergone long-term rectification. This shows substantial progress in improving high-risk road locations, although continued long-term safety measures are needed at locations where further intervention is required.
Figure 4: Progress in Black-Spot Rectification on National Highways, 2026
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, Rajya Sabha (2026).
The figure shows that 85.5% of identified black spots had received short-term rectification, while 40.2% had completed long-term rectification. This indicates that immediate safety measures have progressed substantially faster than longer-term corrective measures, highlighting the need for continued long-term road-safety interventions.
5. Digital Integration and End-to-End Monitoring: PM-RAHAT has established a technology-based implementation framework linking accident reporting, hospital admission, police authentication, treatment, claim processing and payment. The scheme integrates the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ Electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) platform with the National Health Authority’s Transaction Management System (TMS 2.0), creating an end-to-end digital trail for each case. This digital integration is intended to improve transparency, enable monitoring of individual cases and reduce procedural delays in the delivery of cashless treatment. The government has also established defined timelines for police authentication and hospital payment, strengthening accountability across different stages of implementation.
Overall, PM-RAHAT’s functioning combines emergency response, cashless treatment, digital case tracking and timely claim settlement to ensure that road-accident victims receive prompt medical care. By coordinating multiple stakeholders through a technology-enabled framework, the scheme seeks to reduce delays and strengthen accountability in emergency treatment and reimbursement.
Impact
1. Potential Impact on Preventable Road-Accident Deaths: The most important potential impact of PM-RAHAT is its contribution to timely emergency treatment and, consequently, the reduction of preventable deaths. The Supreme Court observed that delays in emergency medical intervention significantly reduce the chances of survival and that a uniform and robust trauma-care system could be critical in reducing preventable deaths. In this context, PM-RAHAT can contribute to the broader emergency-care system by removing financial barriers to immediate hospital treatment for eligible road-accident victims.
2. Impact on Access to Cashless Emergency Healthcare: PM-RAHAT can improve access to emergency healthcare by ensuring that eligible road-accident victims receive cashless treatment without having to arrange immediate funds at the time of the accident. However, the Supreme Court’s directions indicate that the effectiveness of this mechanism depends on the availability of designated hospitals and functioning administrative systems. The Court specifically directed States and UTs to fully operationalise PM-RAHAT through hospital designation and onboarding of State Health Agencies on the Transaction Management System (TMS).
3. Institutional and State-Level Implementation Gaps: A significant constraint on the impact of PM-RAHAT is uneven implementation across States and UTs. The Supreme Court recorded the Attorney General’s observation that implementation of Union-level policies, including PM-RAHAT, was “scanty and fragmented” across different States and UTs. The Court also noted that the status of implementation differed from one place to another. This suggests that the benefits of PM-RAHAT may not yet be uniform across the country, as its effectiveness depends on state-level institutional capacity.
4. Impact of Inter-agency Coordination on Scheme Effectiveness: The impact of PM-RAHAT also depends on coordination between health authorities, hospitals and the police. The Supreme Court directed States and UTs to integrate district police with the electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) system and to establish the required administrative and financial mechanisms for PM-RAHAT. These directions indicate that cashless treatment is not an isolated hospital-level intervention; its effectiveness depends on coordination across the accident-reporting, verification and treatment process.
5. Overall Impact Assessment: Overall, the Supreme Court’s observations indicate that PM-RAHAT’s wider impact will depend not only on providing cashless treatment but also on the effective functioning of the institutional systems supporting it. However, the scheme’s actual impact remains conditional on uniform state-level adoption, hospital readiness and effective coordination among police, health agencies and healthcare providers. The Court’s direction that States and UTs that had not yet adopted PM-RAHAT should operationalise it within three months further indicates that nationwide implementation remained an important prerequisite for achieving uniform policy outcomes.
Emerging Issues
1. Exclusion of Victims Hospitalised After 24 Hours: A significant policy concern is the exclusion of victims whose first hospitalisation takes place more than 24 hours after the accident. While the provision is intended to focus PM-RAHAT on immediate emergency treatment, it may create difficulties for victims who face unavoidable delays in reaching a suitable hospital, particularly where specialised trauma care is not immediately accessible. MoRTH and State Road Safety Councils should periodically review the implementation of this eligibility condition and establish clear referral and exception protocols for cases involving medically or geographically unavoidable delays.
2. Limited Treatment Scope at Non-Designated Hospitals: The scheme allows non-designated hospitals to provide only stabilisation treatment, while designated hospitals are responsible for the broader treatment covered under PM-RAHAT. This distinction may create a practical challenge where the nearest facility is a non-designated hospital and immediate transfer to a designated hospital is difficult. State Health Agencies should strengthen referral protocols and ensure that non-designated hospitals have clear procedures for stabilising and transferring eligible victims to appropriate designated facilities without avoidable delays.
3. Adequacy of Trauma-Care Capacity in Newly Empanelled Hospitals: The guidelines provide for the identification and empanelment of hospitals that are not already covered under AB PM-JAY but are capable of providing trauma and polytrauma care. As the network expands, maintaining consistent standards of trauma-care capacity, equipment and trained personnel across newly empanelled hospitals may become an important implementation challenge. The National Health Authority and State Health Agencies should conduct periodic quality assessments and capacity-building programmes to ensure that newly empanelled hospitals maintain the required standards of emergency and trauma care.
4. Administrative Burden in Uninsured and Hit-and-Run Cases: For uninsured vehicles, hit-and-run cases and certain cases involving TMS timeouts, claims are forwarded to the District Collector for processing and payment through PFMS. This creates an additional administrative pathway compared with claims involving insured vehicles and may increase the workload of district administrations as scheme utilisation expands. District administrations and State Health Agencies should standardise documentation and processing procedures for such cases and establish internal monitoring mechanisms to prevent administrative backlogs.
5. Risk of Fraud and Irregular Claims: The creation of State Anti-Fraud Units and the provision for fraud-detection triggers indicate a potential risk of fraudulent or irregular claims as the scheme expands. Such misuse could divert public resources and undermine confidence in the scheme. NHA and State Health Agencies should strengthen automated fraud-detection mechanisms, conduct periodic claim audits and ensure timely investigation of suspicious cases while avoiding unnecessary delays in legitimate emergency claims.
Way Forward
PM-RAHAT represents an important shift in India’s road-accident response from emergency treatment being constrained by immediate financial considerations towards a more assured and institutionally supported system of care. Its core objective of providing timely and cashless treatment to road-accident victims is aligned with the broader goal of reducing preventable deaths and strengthening access to essential emergency healthcare. The initial implementation indicates that the scheme has established a nationwide framework for linking accident reporting, emergency response, hospital treatment and claim processing, while its early reach demonstrates its potential to support a more responsive road-safety and healthcare system.
Going forward, the effectiveness of PM-RAHAT will depend on converting this policy framework into consistent outcomes across the country. Greater attention is required to ensure that eligibility provisions do not create unintended barriers to treatment, that non-designated and designated hospitals function within a clear referral framework, and that trauma-care quality is maintained as the hospital network expands. At the same time, efficient administration of uninsured and hit-and-run cases and stronger safeguards against fraudulent claims will be important for ensuring that public resources reach genuine beneficiaries.
At the macro level, PM-RAHAT can contribute to the vision of a New India by strengthening the country’s emergency healthcare architecture and making road-accident response more timely, accessible and accountable. Its long-term success should therefore be assessed not only by the number of claims processed or beneficiaries covered, but by whether it reduces delays in emergency care, improves the reliability of institutional response and ultimately helps prevent avoidable loss of life. Sustained monitoring, evidence-based improvements and coordinated action by MoRTH, State Governments, health agencies, hospitals, police authorities and district administrations will be essential for translating the scheme’s initial promise into durable road-safety and public-health outcomes.
References
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. (2026). Implementation Status of PM RAHAT Scheme.
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2298285®=48&lang=2
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. (2026). Government Launches “PM RAHAT” – Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims. Press Information Bureau, 14 February 2026.
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2228172®=3&lang=2
Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. (2026). Annual Report 2025–2026. Government of India
https://financialservices.gov.in/annual-reports
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, 2026, “Road Accidents and Cashless Treatment,” Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1965, Answered on 30 July 2026, Parliament of India.
https://sansad.in/getFile/lsapps/loksabhaquestions/annex/188/AU1965_G9acJB.pdf?source=lsapps
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, 2026, “Cashless Treatment for Road Accident Victims: Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4240,” Rajya Sabha, 1 April 2026.
https://sansad.in/getFile/annex/270/AU4240_BzamJk.pdf?source=pqars
Supreme Court of India. (2026). Savelife Foundation and Another v. Union of India and Others, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 726 of 2024, Order dated 26 May 2026. Indian Kanoon.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/79241526
West Khasi Hills District Administration, Government of Meghalaya. (2026). Prime Minister – Road Accident Victims’ Hospitalisation & Assured Treatment (PM-RAHAT). District Administration, West Khasi Hills.
About the Contributor
Tanisha Hooda is a Research Intern at the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI) and a B.A. (Hons.) Economics graduate from Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS), Faridabad. Her research interests include competition policy, digital economy, public policy, and economic development, with a focus on analysing the socio-economic implications of emerging policy frameworks.
Acknowledgment
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the organisation.
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