Ayushman Bharat sign up soars, 58 crore can get free treatment

The acceptance of digital healthcare is fast catching on as seen in the rapid surge in registration with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the flagship healthcare initiative of the Centre.

In the last three months, 8.55 crore new registrations have been done for Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), which is a ‘record’ surge in any quarter since the launch of the scheme, a senior official of the National Health Authority (NHA), told businessline.

As on date, the total number of ABHA accounts is 58.61 crore and new registrations are in the range of 1.52 lakh daily, per NHA data.

FREE TREATMENT

This implies that over 58 crore accounts holders are now eligible for free treatment of up to ₹5 lakh per annum per family at empanelled hospitals.

There are 2.40 lakh verified health facilities where people can get treated apart from over 3 lakh verified

healthcare professionals, per the latest data.

DIGITISED RECORDS

“More significantly, there has been remarkable enthusiasm among the general public to use the digitised health records, as the records of about 36 crore ABHA accounts are already digitised,” the official said.

Patients can access these records on their mobiles using any ABDM’s Personal Health Records (PHR) app. “A large number of individuals are now using the app to securely manage their health records in a digital format,” the official said. According to him, the drivers for increasing interest in ABDM include postCovid surge in healthcare costs especially for NonCommunicable Diseases (NCDs), and digital access to personal health records with increasing digitisation of frontdesk operations in hospitals.

Further, the NHA has been providing many incentives to various stakeholders such as the Digital Health Incentive Scheme (DHIS) for health facilities, insurance companies and health solution providers based on the progress made in ABHAlinked health records.

CAMPAIGNS

For active adoption of ABDM by smaller health facilities in the private sector, the NHA announced the 100 Microsites project last year.

Awareness campaigns are also being run on FM radio stations and the electronic media to spread the benefits of the cards.

The top five States in terms of enrolment are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.