Private healthcare institutions have contributed less than 0.3 per cent of patients’ health records for the Centre’s digital health mission, six months after
the National Health Authority (NHA) began to offer financial incentives for health
records.

The NHA’s dashboard for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission showed that private institutions have contributed only around 768,000 (0.26 per cent) of the 292.2 million health records generated and linked to individuals’ digital health accounts up to August 5.

The health records are intended to be part of the digital health mission launched by the Centre in September 2021 to enable easy, paperless, and quick access to patients’ health records and medical history from anywhere in the country with patients’ consent.

Experts believe the low counts of health records from the private sector reflect both inadequate levels of incentives to healthcare institutions and public and healthcare providers’ indifference to the potential benefits of the digital health mission.

The NHA — the government agency implementing the mission — said on Friday it would extend up to December 31 the incentives it has provided since January 1 this year. They include Rs 15 for diagnostic labs for each additional health record above a base of 500 per month and Rs 20 for hospitals for each additional health record above a base of 50 per month.

Since January, 1,205 healthcare facilities — 567 public and 638 private hospitals, clinics, or diagnostic labs — have registered under the incentives scheme. The NHA has said the scheme has “proved to be a significant catalyst in promoting the adoption of digital health technologies in healthcare delivery.”

But the mission’s dashboard showed that over 217 million of the 292 million digital health records linked to health accounts up to August 5 come from two government sources — the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, a health insurance scheme for vulnerable households, and CoWin, the Centre’s digital platform for Covid-19 vaccination.

“There are no real incentives for the private sector to participate,” said a physician and public health expert with knowledge of digital health systems. “The investment for a functional electronic health record system interfaced with the mission is higher than the incentive per record offered,” the expert who requested not to be named told The Telegraph.

The incentive recipients include the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and the AIIMS in Bhopal and Raipur, and hospitals in Lucknow, Bangalore, among other cities, the NHA said. Several private diagnostic labs have also received incentives under the scheme.

Officials from the NHA were not immediately available to respond to queries about the levels of private sector contribution to health records generated for the mission. A query sent by this newspaper to a body of private healthcare providers has also evoked no response.

“The mission has the capacity to empower patients as owners of their health records,” a doctor in a private institution involved in public health programmes said. “They can ask healthcare providers for access to data. Patients are not aware — there needs to be greater sensitisation.”

The digital mission is aimed at creating a network infrastructure to enable patients and their healthcare providers to access their health records from anywhere in the country. Medical experts say this could facilitate improved follow-up care for patients with chronic health disorders.