Anandampillai: The beauty of the ABDM is that someone with an Aadhaar can get ABHA

‘All software should be ABDM compliant’

Kiran Anandampillai, advisor (technology), National Health Authority, delves into ABDM’s potential to transform healthcare in India. He highlights its growing significance for the corporate world – particularly in enhancing employee well-being and driving impactful healthcare CSR initiatives

Published on:

23 Dec 2024, 9:14 am

What specific challenges in India’s healthcare system prompted the need for ABDM?

India’s healthcare system is highly diverse. While the government delivers public healthcare, nearly 70 per cent of the population access some form of private healthcare. The scale of health infrastructure is large – with an estimated 200,000 plus health facilities.

People usually rely on a mix of healthcare services – essential services like vaccination from the government and consultations with private facilities as per convenience. While some of these facilities are digitised, there hasn’t been a way to consolidate all of this data into one’s medical history. If one had access to such information, you would be able to get far better care. These records are especially critical in cases of cancer where people typically carry heavy medical files, or in chronic care like diabetes, where you want to see how your parameters have been over time. Just as we need interoperable health records, we also need healthcare services and health insurance to work seamlessly across systems.

These gaps led the government to start working towards a connected digital health infrastructure in 2018, which ultimately led to the creation of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

What are some of the key components driving this transformation and their implications/ potential?

Today, while buying a car, all a consumer needs to know is that they should ideally get a Bharat Stage V car that meets the emission norms. Similarly, a healthcare practitioner or someone involved in the health system needs to know whether the software at the facility is ABDM-enabled to experience the benefits.

The immediate benefit that hospitals can see is being able to share any health record that they’re creating digitally with their patients. Two, they can simplify patient registration using the ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) scan and share feature. And three, patients will have access to all of their health records from every facility they visit; so, now, providers can request them to share their medical history during registration itself.

On the health insurance side, by using software integrated with the National Health Claims Exchange, hospitals should be able to use one platform to send a claim request – be it for CGHS or ICICI Lombard – and track it from pre-auth to payment.

Healthcare facilities can also enhance the discovery of their doctors. Patients can use any consumer app (Practo or a government app) to find doctors, book appointments and tele-consult, all without juggling multiple apps.

How can ABDM help the business community, particularly from an employer perspective?

Large corporations are big purchasers of employee insurance. IRDAI and NHA have recommended that health insurance be linked with ABHA (unique health ID) to streamline the claims process. The combination of ABHA and the National Health Claims Exchange, I believe, will make it easier for an employee to seek care. All firms should consider how this can be incorporated for their employees when engaging with insurance providers.

Employers can also encourage their digitally savvy workforce to use ABDM-compliant apps to organise their health information, ensuring long-term access to medical history. Although ABDM does not provide health data to employers, I think it is important for corporates to encourage new Personal Health Record apps that allow employees to add metrics that they are tracking at home – data from their Apple Watch-like trackers or home monitoring devices like BP or sugar machines. These can help ensure employees get the best care.

When you use ABHA in CSR programmes to capture health data and that patient goes to some other facility, the medical history becomes available to the local community health workers and physicians

Looking ahead, what more can corporations do to accelerate ABDM adoption?

We do know that, after education, CSR spending in healthcare is one of the and often directed towards running mobile clinics or hospitals. Many of these initiatives have incorporated digitisation. So, wherever these digital systems exist, the CSR community should encourage all software used to be ABDM compliant.

Most importantly, it will benefit the communities that the CSR programmes engage with, as ABDM is designed to work for everyone – those at the top and bottom of the pyramid. Today, there is a large population that does not carry a mobile phone and is not very educated. In the context of health care, they are usually unable to share with their treating physician about their existing medications, prior diagnosis and so on… and may not carry their older medical files with them.

The beauty of the ABDM is that someone with an Aadhaar can get ABHA. When you use ABHA in CSR programmes to capture health data and that patient goes to some other facility, the medical history becomes available to the local community health workers and physicians. This can make a significant difference in the quality of care delivered.