Increasing ABHA ID Usage: The Missing Link in India’s Digital Health Mission

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA), with the vision of creating a robust digital health infrastructure for India. The mission seeks to build an integrated technology ecosystem that allows citizens, hospitals, laboratories, insurers, and healthcare providers to exchange health information securely and efficiently. At the heart of this ecosystem lies the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) a unique digital health identity designed to help individuals access and share their health records seamlessly.

Since its launch, India has made significant progress in creating digital health identities. Over 93.73 crore ABHA IDs have been generated, reflecting widespread enrolment and the government’s commitment to digital healthcare. However, despite this impressive number, the actual usage of ABHA remains relatively low.

The reason is simple: creating an ABHA ID alone does not make the digital health ecosystem functional.

Many people assume that ABHA stores a person’s medical records. In reality, ABHA is only a digital health identifier. Medical records are created and maintained by hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and diagnostic centres. Unless these healthcare providers generate digital records and integrate with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission ecosystem, an ABHA ID has limited practical value for patients.

At present, participation by healthcare providers is largely voluntary. While the National Health Authority encourages hospitals to become part of the ABDM ecosystem and issue digital health records, there is no universal legal requirement mandating every hospital to do so. As a result, many patients who possess an ABHA ID still receive paper prescriptions, physical reports, and discharge summaries that remain outside the digital ecosystem.

Instead of making ABHA compulsory for citizens, policy efforts should focus on mandating hospital participation. Every registered healthcare provider should gradually be encouraged and eventually required through an appropriate legal framework to maintain interoperable digital health records using ABDM standards. This would ensure that patients receive digital copies of their medical records while retaining complete control over who can access them.

To address privacy concerns under Article 21 of the Constitution, any digital health framework must remain consent-based. Patients should have the authority to generate a secure, one-time digital access token or consent code that can be shared only with the doctor, hospital, or insurer of their choice. This would enable secure access to specific health records for a limited purpose and duration, ensuring that sensitive medical information remains under the patient’s control.

India has already built the technological foundation for a digital healthcare revolution. The next step is to strengthen the ecosystem by ensuring that healthcare providers actively participate while safeguarding patient privacy. Only then will ABHA evolve from being merely a digital identity into a truly useful healthcare tool that simplifies treatment, improves continuity of care, and accelerates insurance claim settlements.