NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Fifty crore people now have Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) numbers under the government’s medical insurance scheme, the Union health ministry said on Friday.
More than 1.5 crore patients have used ABHA-based instant OPD registration service and more than 50 lakh people are using the ABHA app to manage their health records digitally, the ministry said.
Speaking on the mission’s progress, the National Health Authority (NHA) said that in the two years since the launch of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the response from patients, healthcare service providers, state teams, policy makers and health tech innovators has been quite encouraging.
“With collective efforts from the industry towards adoption of ABDM, we aim to take the benefits of digital health services to the remotest corners of the country. As more and more people start using ABHA-based services, we get closer to our goal of making healthcare more accessible and efficient,” it said.
As on date, 50 crore individuals have ABHA numbers.
Health facilities such as hospitals, clinics and labs, insurance companies and other healthcare service providers are using ABHA for patient registrations.
This has further enabled digital linking of patient records with their ABHA accounts. Till date, more than 33 crore health records have been linked with ABHA accounts of patients, the statement said.
The patients can access these records on their mobiles using any ABDM-enabled personal health records app.
ABHA number is also being used by patients for availing instant registration at hospitals.
This service has helped close to 1.5 crore patients save time spent in OPD registration queues on a daily basis. Even the health facilities are able to manage patients as well as patient records better with ABHA-based registrations.
ABDM is essentially connecting all stakeholders in health sector via digital highways, it said.
Like ABHA numbers for patients, the healthcare service providers are also being verified and registered. ABDM’s Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) has 2.6 lakh verified doctors and nurses, while the Health Facility Registry (HFR) has 2.26 lakh hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies, etc. Registered.
Further, more than 56,000 hospitals across the country use ABDM-enabled solutions.
For active adoption of ABDM by smaller health facilities from the private sector, the NHA announced 100 microsites project in July 2023. (PTI)