The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) may soon launch its NPS Swasthya pension product within the next 30 days. PFRDA Chairman Sivasubramanian Ramann says that the final guidelines are likely to be put out in a few days.
As the chairman was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest 2026, he revealed that the product has been tested under the proof of concept and received a positive response.
“Swasthya is right now a proof of concept. We are working on it. The proof of concept worked very well. We have, let me say, a very encouraging response, and that’s what has led us to finalise the product. I think in the next few days, we’ll be releasing the final guidelines for the product,” Ramann said.
As per the reports, the Central Recordkeeping Agencies (CRAs) are already working on the technology required for the product, which is expected to be launched within a month.
NPS Swasthya is a health-focused pension product under the National Pension System (NPS), which is structured by allowing to set aside a portion of the retirement corpus towards medical expenses. PFRDA introduced it initially as a proof of concept under its regulatory sandbox framework to test how healthcare benefits could be integrated with the NPS architecture.
The aim of the product is to invest a part of your pension savings for healthcare needs which may arise as an emergency at any time in the future, while the remaining amount continues to accrue interest as per the market rates.
NPS Swasthya also has a provision for health-insurance top-up, which provides coverage when the funds in the health-focused pension product are exhausted. The premium for this insurance is paid from the NPS Swasthya account.
Ramann explained that the settlement of the medical expenses is done by streamlining the system to work directly between the subscriber’s pension account, the insurance company, and the hospital.
“What is important in the NPS Swasthya is my ability to pay money to the hospital directly. So from the pension account, money will be released and go directly to the hospital. Then the health benefit administrator, through the insurance company, will provide for the top-up insurance to be released, which will go to the hospital,” he said.
The framework aims to create a pool for medical expenses from within the NPS funds. If the person throughout the time does not require to pull the money out for healthcare, it would continue to grow with the market returns along with the total investment.
“Lucky if you don’t ever go to hospital, you are multiplying your money based on the market returns that you are getting anyway. So that is the double benefit that we are saying,” PFRDA chairman said.
The final product would be availed through the pension funds which are tied up with insurance companies to ultimately offer the bundle product.
“The pension fund is going to be the master policyholder… the onus is on the pension fund to come up with the best bundled product,” he said.
This would allow subscribers to choose among pension funds based on the health and pension benefits offered in their respective bundled products.
