NHA wants medical colleges and hospitals to register ABHA ID for all patients

New Delhi: The National Health Authority (NHA) has asked the National Medical Commission (NMC) to direct all medical colleges and government and private hospitals to register all patients for an Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Account (ABHA ID).

To be sure, hospitals cannot deny treatment to a patient if they do not want an ABHA ID, as it is voluntary in nature. Digital health data privacy is covered under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the rules for which were notified on 3 January.

As part of the plan, NHA has suggested to the medical education regulator that a joint mechanism be explored to review the progress of digitization through ABHA.

NHA has assured the NMC that it will provide all requisite technical support for the data collection for ABHA ID. 

ABHA health ID is a 14-digit number that allow patients to access their health records, prescriptions, and consultation details across healthcare providers.

“National Health Authority, the implementing body of the ABDM assures all requisite technical support to the officials engaged in ABHA/ABHA activities in the medical colleges and their attached medical colleges,” said Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary, NHA and Mission Director, ABDM in a letter to the NMC Secretary (Prof) Dr B. Srinivas.

“It is also requested that if a joint mechanism may be built to review the progress of digitization through ABHA, it will be helpful in the actual implementation,” Vaska said.

ABHA adoption

Currently, there are nearly 700 medical colleges (including both private and government) who have to implement ABHA ID for patients.

“NMC is the regulator. It can keep a close watch on the medical colleges whether they are registering ABHA ID for patients. Has NMC sought any report from the hospitals?” said an official aware of the matter.

Last year, NMC asked hospitals to register ABHA ID for the patients visiting hospitals in the OPD, IPD and emergency in addition to hospital registration. However, it has not been implemented.

The ABHA ID links all healthcare benefits from public health programs meto insurance schemes. Till date, NHA has issued 730 million ABHA ID numbers.

Earlier, Mint reported that Centre had directed the state/UTs governments to link the health records of the beneficiaries of the different health schemes with ABHA ID to maximize the benefits of the digital health system and enable people to digitally access and share their health records.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.