NHA extends incentive scheme for hospitals under Ayushman Bharat

New Delhi: The National Health Authority (NHA) has extended its digital health incentives scheme (DHIS) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) till 31 December.

Launched on 1 January, DHIS provides financial incentives to hospitals, diagnostic labs, and digital health solution providers who contribute to the transformational digitization efforts under the ABDM initiative.

The scheme has significantly spurred the adoption of digital health technologies and practices across the nation,  the NHA said in a statement. Its extension comes in response to positive feedback from health providers and tech companies, allowing more stakeholders to benefit from the scheme's financial incentives.

"NHA's commitment to promoting a digitally inclusive healthcare ecosystem is underscored by the extension of this incentive scheme," the CEO of NHA said in the statement. "We plan to reward and encourage healthcare providers who contribute to building a digitally empowered healthcare landscape with initiatives like DHIS."

The DHIS enables eligible health facilities and digital solutions companies to earn up to ₹4 crore in incentives, determined by the number of digital health records linked to patients' Ayushman Bharat Health Account numbers.

This incentive can be availed by the health facilities (hospitals, diagnostic labs) and Digital Solution Companies, registered with ABDM’s Health Facility Registry (HFR) and fulfilling the eligibility criterion specified under the scheme. It is anticipated that the DHIS advantages offered to the DSCs will contribute to cost reduction or will be transmitted further to the relevant healthcare facilities to pay their digitization costs, etc.

So far, 1205 health facilities have registered under this scheme with 567 public and 638 private hospitals/ clinics/ diagnostic labs. Further, out of the 25 digital solution companies registered, 22 are from the private sector.

Till June 2023, close to 120 health facilities and seven health tech companies have received incentives of around ₹4.84 crore.

The incentive recipients include government hospitals like AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Raipur, AIIMS Bhopal, Lok Bandhu Rajnarayan Combined Hospital, Lucknow, KC General Hospital Bengaluru and some private hospitals.