Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) launches NPS Swasthya pilot for medical corpus

Key facts

• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has introduced NPS Swasthya on a pilot basis to help subscribers build a separate health corpus within their pension account.
• Any Indian citizen can voluntarily enrol in NPS Swasthya and contribute any amount without an upper limit through their chosen pension fund manager.
• Existing non-government NPS subscribers above 40 years can transfer up to 30% of their total contributions from Common Account to Swasthya Account.
• Subscribers can withdraw up to 25% of their own contributions per instance for medical expenses after accumulating a minimum corpus of Rs 50,000.
• For critical hospitalisation bills exceeding 70% of the Swasthya corpus, 100% lump-sum withdrawal is allowed under the premature exit option.
• Withdrawn amounts are paid directly to the Health Benefit Administrator (HBA) or Third Party Administrator (TPA) against valid medical bills, and any surplus is transferred back to the Common Scheme Account.
• The scheme operates under PFRDA's Regulatory Sandbox Framework with limited enrollment, and if found unviable, the accumulated corpus can be transferred back to the Common Account without loss.