The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) is an initiative launched by the Indian government under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), where you get access to a health card with a 14-digit ABHA ID number. It lets users securely access and shares their health records digitally with clinics, hospitals, and insurance providers. PHR applications like Health-e provides secure storage and management of medical records online. It is also integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and allows users to digitally manage and share their health records using the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA).
Benefits of ABHA Health Card
List of the benefits of ABHA health card:
1. Effortless Sign-up
Creating an account with ABHA is a straightforward process, accessible to anyone with or without technical expertise. Simply visit the official website of ABHA to access the link for creating an ABHA ID number or health ID card in India, and follow the simple steps. To create and use an account, you may provide either your mobile number, Aadhar card number, or driver's license.
2. Secure Storage of Your Medical Records
The safeguarding of medical data is an essential and complex task. All medical information must be kept secure to prevent misusing or using it to target individuals. To ensure this, the platform utilises sophisticated encryption and security measures. With the help of this advanced technology, users can safely link their health insurance, public healthcare programs, and healthcare benefits to their ABHA health card.
3. Smooth Access to Health Facility Registry (HFR)
With an ABHA card, you are automatically granted access to the HFR, which is a collection of data from all medical facilities across the country, covering both traditional and modern medical systems. It encompasses the public and private sectors and all types of medical facilities such as laboratories, pharmacies, imaging centres, and more. This ensures that you are dealing with a responsible party that can be verified using the facility ID in the HFR. It means that you can verify the authenticity of any health facility, and in case of need, you can locate one near you no matter where you are in the country. The HFR also provides access to digital health records, telemedicine, and HMIS solutions. Digitisation greatly reduces the effort needed for the ABHA registration and renewal of various licences.
4. Get Access to Personal Health Record-System (PHR)
The Personal Health Record-System (PHR) is a formal electronic medical record that is managed and shared by an individual and can be drawn from multiple sources. The most prominent feature of the PHR is that the information is completely in the control of the end-user, allowing them to manage their healthcare information, including health data, medical records, treatment details, lab reports, and health summaries across one or more health centers.
5. Transfer All Medical Records Hassle-free
Visiting a new medical provider or institution can be a tedious process, as it requires a complete re-submission of medical history. Accuracy is paramount to ensure the best healthcare is received. Many people are taking the initiative to retain their reports, prescriptions, and files to ensure their new doctor has all the critical information. For those with an ABHA number, porting medical records from one place in the country to another, or transferring it from one clinic, doctor, or institution to another, is made easy.
6. Easy Activation and Deactivation
Having a health ID card in India is not mandatory yet. Hence, generating or not entirely depends on your will. And if you choose to generate an ABHA number but want to delete your data from it, you can still do it without any trouble.
7. Create ABHA Number for Children
Like you, even your child can set up their unique health ID card with the help of ABHA. Right from birth, you can track their health record and medical data, like immunisation records, and access preventive healthcare services.
8. Quickly Add the Nominee
With the help of this feature, you will be able to add a nominee and help to view and manage health records without interruptions.
9. Access Data for Making Informed Decisions
Healthcare professionals will benefit from improved access to patient medical records, allowing for more effective and efficient health solutions. The digitisation of the claims process through ABHA will enable faster reimbursements. Moreover, the quality and accessibility of macro and micro-level data are improved to enable advanced analytics, the usage of health biomarkers, and more effective preventive healthcare. This will empower the government to have geography and demography-based monitoring, make appropriate decisions, and design and strengthen the implementation of health programmes and policies.
Final Thoughts
Although not compulsory, creating a health ID card with an ABHA number has several benefits. Besides making healthcare a centralized solution in India, it also makes storing and accessing medical data and records a simple, streamlined, and hassle-free process that saves you time and effort. Moreover, the portal stores your personal information with high-level security, so you don't need to worry about data preaching.
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