NEW DELHI:The Centre has extended by a year the scheme for digitizing patients’ health records and linking them with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Account (ABHA ID).
Hospitals get Rs20 per patient for digitizing their health record and linking it with ABHA IDs.
The Union government has sought details from states and union territories on the utilization of funds received through the scheme.
Focus is to boost adoption of digital healthcare services
The scheme’s focus is to boost adoption of digital healthcare services and encourage public adoption of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). It was set to end on 30 June this year.
“It has now further been decided to extend the Digital Health Incentive Scheme (DHIS) scheme till 30th June 2025 or till funds for DHIS are available, unless discontinued earlier,” said a communication issued by the National Health Authority (NHA) seen by Mint.
For utilization of funds released under DHIS, the NHA has issued an “incentive utilization guidelines” to help hospitals utilize these for digital infrastructure or any other activity related to the patient welfare.
“It is requested to make use of the digital health incentive sheme utilization guidelines to further supplement the health infrastructure of the facilities of your states and provide us details of such utilization,” stated the communication.
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Notably, now all health facilities registered with the health facility registry (HFR) such as clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, laboratories and digital solution companies can earn an incentive of up to ₹4 crore.
So far around 633 million ABHA IDs have been created across the country, but the aim is to develop this digital health ID, which is voluntary in nature, for every individual.
The NHA monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of the scheme and makes suitable changes about its continuation, modification, budget.
So far, a sum of ₹34 crore has been released to hospitals. However, only a part of it has been used.
The NHA has given flexibility to the hospitals to utilize this fund for any work related to the hospital such as free Wi-Fi at facility premises, proper ventilated seating arrangement, wheelchair, stretcher, clean drinking water, etc.
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“Now that hospitals have received sufficient amount of money, the Centre has given fresh direction to the states to utilize the fund and submit the report accordingly,” said an official
Queries sent to the health ministry remained unanswered.
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Published: 11 Jun 2024, 07:24 PM IST