Remember the days of meticulously filing medical records at home? From prescriptions to reports to bills, every piece of paper is carefully placed in a dedicated folder. In today’s world, where most information can be accessed with a tap on a smartphone screen, maintaining physical documents of your medical records can feel like an overwhelming task. This challenge becomes even more pressing when caring for elderly parents or juggling multiple health needs. Missing even a single document can have a significant impact on diagnosis, treatment, and insurance claims.
What if we tell you that you can now easily store all your medical information in one place and share it with medical practitioners or hospitals electronically? The Centre has introduced a unique 14-digit number — Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) or health ID — to store all health records of an individual. How can you create an ABHA number? Who can access your medical history through an ABHA ID? If you enroll for an ABHA ID, how safe will your data be? ET Wealth Online explains what you need to know about ABHA ID.
1) What is an ABHA number or health ID?
ABHA number is a 14-digit unique number to access, link and share your health records across multiple systems digitally. Very similar to a bank account number, it is a unique number to identify you and authenticate you whenever needed.
2) What is an ABHA address?
It could be difficult to remember the 14-digit ABHA number in the time of emergency. So, there is a username that is linked to your ABHA number that is easy to remember. The format of the ABHA address is very similar to a UPI ID — xyz@abdm. It is also known as health ID.
3) ABHA number: What changes for you
At present, when you are a hospital, be it a government hospital or private, it usually creates an ID against your name to keep your health records. But, only that hospital can access those health records. If you go to a new doctor or hospital tomorrow, you need to carry all the documents of your previous treatment with you. As a patient, you need to maintain a record of your diagnosis and treatment. If you enrol for an ABHA ID, you just have to go to the hospital and provide them the unique number and your consent to go through your past medical history online. You do not need to carry any physical documents of your medical records as all the information is already stored in the Ayushman Bharat Health Account. The doctor can easily access all your past diagnoses and treatments online. As the account is interoperable, any doctor, medical partitioner, or hospital can access your medical history if you have given consent.
4) What is the ABHA mobile app?
ABHA mobile app helps individuals to access and share their medical records online. “It empowers patients to seamlessly receive digital lab reports, prescriptions, and diagnoses from various healthcare providers, including doctors, labs, hospitals, and wellness centers. This approach ensures secure and consent-driven sharing of health data,” the health ministry says.
Through Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission-compliant apps, patients will also be able to choose which health records they want to link with their health IDs, securely store their digital health records on their devices, securely access their records online, and securely share their health records with healthcare providers after the patient’s consent.
5) Who can create an ABHA number?
Any citizen of India can create an ABHA number for free. An individual can only have one ABHA number. However, they can create multiple ABHA addresses linked to an ABHA number.
Do keep in mind that it is not mandatory to create an ABHA ID.
6) How does the ABHA number benefit you?
Think of the ABHA number as a repository where you can store your medical records and access them online. From prescriptions and diagnostic reports to discharge summaries — you can keep all the details in the ABHA number using your ABHA address. As the process is entirely digital, the individuals do not have to necessarily maintain physical documents of medical treatments.
“ABHA account helps you collate your lifetime records in a digital account and help you manage your health better,” says frequently asked questions (FAQs) on ABHA on the National Health Authority (NHA) website.
As the ABHA account is interoperable, the access is not restricted to one particular hospital or healthcare provider. In a release dated April 4, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says, “The accounts are designed to be portable across various healthcare providers empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, allowing beneficiaries to access services seamlessly, regardless of their location.”
7) No medical data will be shared without your consent
NHA has also developed a digital system called Health Information Exchange and Consent Manager (HIE-CM). This system ensures that the identity of persons intending to share information is first verified, consent of the person/patient is taken, and only after that, the health records are shared. Going forward, private players may also come out with such HIE-CMs.
Moreover, Healthcare professionals recognized by Indian authorities can register on the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) (https://hpr.ndhm.gov.in/en ). Health facilities can register themselves on the Health Facility Registry (HFR) ( https://facility.ndhm.gov.in/ ).
8) How safe will your health record be if you enrol to ABHA number?
Keep in mind that the central government or Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission does not store the medical records of any individuals. The onus of creating and storing your medical data on ABHA is on the healthcare provider. The health ministry says, “Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is creating interoperable platforms for linking these data repositories/fiduciaries. This is known as federated architecture. This means that the health records will continue to be processed and stored at the same place where they are created, which has been happening prior to Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission as well.”
According to the FAQ available on the National Health Authority website, “Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission only facilitates secure data exchange between the intended stakeholders on Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission network after the patient’s consent,” according to the FAQ. Only the data collected for the registration of health ID, healthcare professional registry and healthcare facility registry is stored centrally. “It is necessary for these datasets to be stored centrally because they are essential to provide interoperability, trust, and identification and a single source of truth across different digital health systems. This data is stored and processed in secure and safe manner.”
“The government will not have access to such data. No additional means of accessing such data is being created or envisaged in the current ecosystem,” the ministry says.
9) How to create an ABHA number
There are multiple ways through which an ABHA number can be created.
a) Individuals can visit the ABHA portal – abha.abdm.gov.in and create ABHA by following the online process.
b) The citizens can also download the ABHA app or any ABDM partner app such as Aarogya Setu, Driefcase, Ekacare, etc to self-register for ABHA.
c) ABHA is also created by various central and state government programmes such as CoWin, NCD, RCH, Nikshay, etc., providing health services to millions of citizens.
d) ABHA can also be created in assisted mode by hospitals, customer service centres, etc. whenever a citizen visits these places.
c) The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has asked insurers to facilitate the creation of ABHA number of health insurance policyholders with their consent.
10) If I link my health records to my ABHA, can my doctor see all my previous health records that I don’t want to share?
No. Providing consent to a doctor to go through your medical history linked with ABHA, does not mean he can check your entire medical history. You can select the health records you want to share with the doctor and provide consent to share that particular information. On this, the ministry earlier said, “Therefore, by linking all your health records to your ABHA you will not end up sharing all your health records when providing consent. The consent is granular and can be provided separately for each of the health records as per the wish of the patient.”
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