8th pay commission: Central Secretariat Service (CSS) Forum hopes panel enhances contribution, sum assured under CGEIS

The Central Secretariat Service (CSS) Forum, in a statement said it hopes the 8th central pay commission (CPC) would consider enhancing the contribution and sum assured under the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEIS), PTI reported on Saturday.

The forum, an association of CSS officers, felt increased limits would be keeping in view present-day needs and the higher insurance covers available in the market. “The CSS Forum remains committed to the welfare and security of the CSS fraternity and their families,” the statement added.

CGHS empanels 207 multi-speciality, super-speciality hospitals

CGHS in June empanelled 207 hospitals (190 multi-speciality hospitals, 17 super-speciality hospitals) in Delhi and NCR with aim to improve healthcare access for central government employees, pensioners and their dependents, ANI reported.

This was announced in a memorandum from the headquarters in New Delhi, signed by CGHS Additional Director Dr Pushp Lata, which stated that the empanelment is valid for three years, till 10 June 2029, it added.

• The Super Speciality hospitals include Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali; Yashoda Medicity at Indrapuram, Ghaziabad; Medanta The Medicity Hospital in Gurugram; Amrita Hospital in Faridabad, and Fortis Healthcare in Shalimar Bagh, among others.
• While, the list of 180 multi-speciality hospitals includes Escorts Heart Institute in Okhla, Max Smart Super Speciality at Saket, Delhi Heart Hospital, and Action Cancer Hospital in Paschim Vihar, Delhi, among others.

Delhi-NCR based beneficiaries with a CGHS card can now access these hospitals for cashless and specialised treatments such as cardiology, neurology, oncology, etc.

The CSS Forum in a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) said the move will “enhance accessibility, choice and quality healthcare services for central government employees, pensioners and their families”.

CSS Shield: What is it? All we know

On 5 September, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh backed the forum's ‘CSS Shield’ initiative which supports families of officers who die in service, ANI reported. He said such efforts can create a culture of standing by families in times of sudden loss and that “the mechanism is not difficult to implement; what matters is the collective will and willingness to contribute”.

Under ‘CSS Shield’, the forum seeks to provide at least ₹15 lakh to a bereaved family and progressively enhance the assistance as participation increases. CSS has around 13,000 members at present and the forum envisages taking the support substantially higher in the future.

The minister also suggested that the initiative could gain a wider dimension as its participation and corpus grow, including considering scholarships for children of deceased CSS officers; which the forum said it would explore.

The forum in its statement added that memorandum of understandings (MoUs) have been signed with educational institutions to provide education at concessional rates and CSS officers have collectively contributed around ₹1.30 crore since 2020 towards financial assistance for the families of approximately 65-70 deceased officers.

(With inputs from Agencies)