CM Punjab Health Card (Sehat Card Plus)

Q: My spouse and I both work — can we each have separate Sehat Cards?

Generally no. Sehat Card is registered per family unit rather than per individual. If you and your spouse are in the same household, you fall under one family card linked to the family head's CNIC. The exception is if the spouse has employer-provided medical insurance — in which case they are excluded from Sehat Card and you can register without them as the family head.

Q: What if I am hospitalised for a chronic condition lasting more than the annual balance?

Once the primary or secondary pool is exhausted, the patient switches to standard hospital fees for any further treatment in the same fiscal year. The hospital will typically continue the treatment and bill the family separately — many hospitals offer payment plans for cardholder families in such situations. The card resets on the next 1 July and a fresh balance becomes available.

Q: Can I get a refund if I paid for a treatment I later discovered was covered?

No. The Sehat Card system works through prior authorisation at the hospital admission desk. Treatments that you paid for directly cannot be retrospectively claimed — there is no post-payment reimbursement mechanism. Always verify empanelment and present your CNIC at admission to ensure scheme coverage from the start.

Q: Is maternity care covered under Sehat Card Plus?

Yes, both normal and Caesarean deliveries are covered under the primary care pool. The coverage includes pre-delivery hospital stay, the delivery itself, post-delivery hospital care for mother and baby up to seven days, and complications arising from the delivery. Routine antenatal check-ups during pregnancy are not covered — these fall under outpatient care which is outside the scheme's scope.

The CM Punjab Health Card (officially Sehat Card Plus) is the provincial government's universal health insurance programme, covering Punjab-domiciled families for major medical treatments at empanelled hospitals across Pakistan. Originally launched at the federal level in 2021 then restructured under the Punjab provincial government, the card now offers up to Rs. 10 lakh of annual coverage per family at no cost to the cardholder.

Families covered by Sehat Card Plus

The scheme is intended as universal coverage for all Punjab-domiciled families. The current eligibility conditions are:

Family head must hold a valid Pakistani CNIC.
Family must be registered as Punjab-domiciled — typically evidenced by the family head's CNIC permanent address showing a Punjab district.
Family must be registered with NADRA family tree showing the spouse, children and dependents who will be covered.
No private health insurance covering the same family — the Sehat Card cannot be combined with employer-provided insurance.

Each family is covered as a unit. The head of family, the spouse, all unmarried children, and dependent elderly parents are typically included on a single card. Children up to the age of 25 if students, and up to 18 otherwise, are considered dependents under the scheme rules.

One important note: government employees who already have employer-provided medical coverage cannot register a duplicate Sehat Card. Their existing coverage is treated as the primary insurance.

Medical treatments and coverage limits

Each registered family receives up to Rs. 10 lakh (Rs. 1,000,000) of coverage per fiscal year. The coverage is structured as two pools:

Primary care pool — up to Rs. 4 lakh — covers general inpatient admissions, common surgeries (gall bladder, appendix, hernia), normal and complicated maternity deliveries, accident emergencies, and treatment of common chronic conditions.
Secondary care pool — up to Rs. 6 lakh — reserved for catastrophic care: cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, kidney dialysis and transplants, organ transplants, and severe neurological conditions.

If a family exhausts the primary pool but not the secondary, they cannot transfer the remaining secondary balance to cover primary needs. Both pools are independent and reset at the start of each fiscal year (1 July).

Some specific treatments are explicitly excluded under the scheme — cosmetic surgery, fertility treatments including IVF, experimental therapies, dental work beyond emergency extraction, and routine vision care. These exclusions apply regardless of available card balance.

How to verify your card status

Visit the Sehat Card verification portal
Open the official PSHIC (Punjab State Health Insurance Company) verification page or the Sehat Card portal directly. The exact URL is published on the Punjab Health Department website — pshic.com is the current active address.
Enter your CNIC number
Type the 13-digit CNIC of the family head. Captcha verification follows. The system pulls the family record from the NADRA family tree linked to that CNIC.
Review the family coverage details
The result page shows your family's coverage status — whether the card is active, the remaining annual balance in both pools, and the list of family members covered. Discrepancies in family composition (missing spouse, missing children) should be reported and corrected before any hospital admission.
Locate empanelled hospitals near you
The same portal lets you search for empanelled hospitals by city or by district. The list updates monthly as new facilities join or existing ones are removed.

Empanelled hospitals across Punjab

Sehat Card Plus is accepted at more than 1,100 empanelled hospitals across Pakistan, the majority in Punjab itself but also covering major medical centres in Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar for specialised treatment.

The empanelled list includes most major public hospitals (Mayo Hospital Lahore, Jinnah Hospital Lahore, Services Hospital Lahore, Nishtar Hospital Multan, Allied Hospital Faisalabad), a wide range of private hospitals (Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, Hameed Latif Hospital, Doctors Hospital, Surgimed) and selected specialised centres for cardiac, oncology and renal care.

Smaller district and tehsil hospitals are progressively being added to the empanelled list as their infrastructure meets the scheme's clinical standards. The current cycle aims to bring every tehsil headquarter hospital into the network by mid-2027.

Non-empanelled hospitals cannot accept Sehat Card payment. If you visit such a hospital, you pay normal fees and the Sehat Card provides no benefit — there is no post-treatment reimbursement mechanism for non-empanelled facility expenses.

Using your card during emergency admission

In a medical emergency where there is no time to verify empanelment beforehand, the standard practice is:

Take the patient to the nearest available hospital, regardless of empanelment status. Life-saving care comes first.
If the receiving hospital is empanelled, present the CNIC of the family head at the admission desk. The hospital staff verify the card balance and admit the patient under Sehat Card coverage.
If the receiving hospital is not empanelled, the patient is treated under normal billing. Once stabilised, the patient can be transferred to an empanelled hospital for subsequent care if appropriate — but the costs at the original non-empanelled facility are not refunded.
For planned admissions (scheduled surgery, maternity delivery), always verify empanelment beforehand and arrange admission at an empanelled facility from the start.

The card has no separate physical issuance in current cycles — the CNIC itself functions as the Sehat Card. Hospital staff swipe or enter the CNIC into the PSHIC system to confirm coverage and authorise treatment.

Sehat Card — common patient queries

My spouse and I both work — can we each have separate Sehat Cards?

Does the Sehat Card cover treatments outside Pakistan?

No. The scheme covers only treatments at empanelled hospitals within Pakistan. Treatments abroad, even for conditions that cannot be treated effectively in Pakistan, are not covered. Some other government schemes (notably the Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal medical assistance) sometimes provide ad-hoc support for overseas treatment, but these are separate from Sehat Card and require independent application.

What if I am hospitalised for a chronic condition lasting more than the annual balance?

My family member's name is missing from the NADRA family tree. Can they still be covered?

Not until the NADRA family tree is updated. The Sehat Card system relies entirely on NADRA's family tree records. Missing dependents must be added through a NADRA family tree update — visit any NADRA Khidmat Markaz with the family head's CNIC and supporting documents for the dependents (birth certificates for children, marriage certificate for spouse). The update takes one to four weeks to reflect in the PSHIC system.

Can I get a refund if I paid for a treatment I later discovered was covered?

Is maternity care covered under Sehat Card Plus?

A note on coverage exclusions

Understanding what the Sehat Card does not cover is as important as understanding what it covers. The scheme is designed for major medical events — admissions, surgeries, catastrophic illnesses — rather than routine healthcare. Out-patient department visits, dental work beyond emergency extraction, vision and eye care, mental health outpatient treatment, fertility treatments, cosmetic and elective procedures, and experimental therapies are all outside the scope.

For routine healthcare needs, most families continue to use general practitioners and small clinics on a fee-for-service basis. The Sehat Card complements this rather than replacing it. The annual Rs. 10 lakh balance is specifically meant for the kind of medical event that would otherwise be financially devastating for an average Punjab family — a serious surgery, a cancer diagnosis, a major accident, or a complicated pregnancy.

Coverage limits, eligible treatments and empanelled hospital lists described above reflect the scheme as of early 2026. These are reviewed annually by the Punjab Health Department and adjustments are announced in newspapers and on the official portal. Always verify the latest specifics at pshic.com before relying on details from this guide for an actual medical situation.