National Health Authority has announced the extension of its Digital Health Incentives Scheme till December 31

The National Health Authority (NHA) extended the Digital Health Incentives Scheme (DHIS) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) to December 31, 2023 on Friday. Under the DHIS, hospitals and diagnostic labs, as well as providers of digital health solutions such as Hospital/Health Management Information System (HMIS) and Laboratory Management Information System (LMIS), are rewarded for adopting and enabling transformative digitisation under the ABDM.

As part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the DHIS became live on January 1, 2023. Under the DHIS, qualifying health institutions and digital solutions businesses can earn up to 4 crore in cash incentives based on the quantity of digital health records produced and connected to patients' ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) numbers.

This incentive is available to health facilities (hospitals, diagnostic labs) and Digital Solution Companies that are registered with ABDM's Health Facility Registry (HFR) and meet the scheme's qualifying criteria. It is expected that the DHIS benefits provided to DSCs would contribute to cost savings or will be passed on to the relevant healthcare institutions to cover their digitalization expenses etc.

This system has so far registered 1,205 health institutions, including 567 public and 638 private hospitals/clinics/diagnostic labs. Furthermore, 22 of the 25 registered digital solution businesses are from the private sector. Nearly 120 health facilities and seven health tech startups have won incentives totaling 4.84 crore through June 2023. Among the recipients are government institutions such as AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Raipur, AIIMS Bhopal, Lok Bandhu Rajnarayan Combined Hospital, Lucknow, and KC General Hospital, Bengaluru, as well as private hospitals such as KGMU, Lucknow, and KIMS Hubbali, Bengaluru.