District, sub-district or taluk hospitals are fostering the momentum for the creation of digital health records of Indians. Government data shows that from small to big, hospitals across India have started earning an additional and modest income under the Narendra Modi-led central government’s Digital Health Incentive Scheme to push the rollout of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Sample this: In April, UHM District Male Hospital in Kanpur received an incentive of Rs 3.66 lakh; Tej Bahadur Sapru Hospital in Beli, Prayagraj, earned Rs 2.95 lakh; and Sonam Norboo Memorial Hospital in Ladakh received Rs 66,000 incentive in April – all by linking patients’ health records to ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account).
“The NHA (National Health Authority) is giving incentives to every hospital for successful OPD (outpatient department) registration done via scanning QR code. For every successful transaction, NHA is giving Rs 20 to the hospital for creating each record and Rs 5 to the software provider company or DSC (digital solution company),” said Himanshu Burad, officer on special duty (OSD) to the additional CEO at NHA.
The NHA is the apex body responsible for the implementation of ABDM. “States like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir are frontrunners in using this capability under ABDM,” he said, adding, “on one hand hospitals are giving better facilities to their patients, on the other hand, they are also getting incentives to do so”.
What does data show?
According to data for May, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi received the highest incentive of Rs 13.76 lakh for linking health records followed by AIIMS, Rishikesh (Rs3.40 lakh).
In April, AIIMS in Raipur managed to earn over Rs 6.35 lakh followed by Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civil Hospital in Lucknow (Rs 5.02 lakh), UHM District Male Hospital in Kanpur (Rs 3.66 lakh), district hospital in Karnataka’s Dharwad (Rs 2.06 lakh) among others.
The biggest beneficiary of the scheme is the government-run National Informatics Centre (NIC), which earned Rs 63.51 lakh in May. It provides software to hospitals as a DSC.
Efforts to create a digital health ecosystem
In January, the NHA announced an incentives scheme to give a boost to digital health transactions in the country. The incentives under the scheme are provided to hospitals and diagnostic labs, as well as to providers of digital health solutions such as hospital/health management information systems and laboratory management information systems.
Under the scheme, eligible health facilities and digital solutions companies are able to earn financial incentives of up to Rs 4 crore, based on the number of digital health records they create and link to the ABHA.
“The NHA is striving to create a win-win proposition for every stakeholder in the ecosystem,” Burad said. “Hospitals give better services, patients’ waiting time reduces, mHealth apps are able to showcase the capabilities of digital health to a potential customer and NHA gains if the national digital health ecosystem thrives.”
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