The Union Health Ministry has mandated linking of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) beneficiaries ID with Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) ID by April 30, 2024. While this has raised several questions about possible leaking of health data the Ministry has maintained that protocols for anonymisation and aggregation of data and use of such data will be defined after extensive stakeholder consultations.
“After that, anonymous records can be used by the government to make policies and other relevant interventions in the interests of the public. Till this is done, health records will not be used by the government,” it said.
The move to link CGHS-ID with ABHA-ID according to the Ministry is aimed at creating a digital health identification of the beneficiaries and store their digital health records. The Ministry has also clarified that ABHA does not mean the eligibility of a person for a particular scheme including AB-PMJAY.
“ABHA is not a replacement of current CGHS services or a replacement of current CGHS Health Management Information System (HMIS). Rather it is an addition/add-on to the current services offered by CGHS,’’ it added.
According to the MoHFW, approximately 44,98,914 beneficiaries are covered under CGHS, pan-India, which include 26,57,833 serving employees and around 18,41,081 pensioners.
CGHS provides healthcare through allopathic, homeopathic systems of medicine, along with ayurveda, unani, siddha, and yoga. While the directive came into effect earlier this week the Ministry has also issued a detailed explainer on what ABHA is and how the linking has to be initiated.
Elaborating on if it is possible for the government or any other entity to do surveillance of the health status of an individual through Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) the Ministry said that this isn’t possible as the health records are created and stored at the place of their creation by respective healthcare providers (which is the case even now). It added that ABDM is creating interoperable platforms for linking these data repositories/fiduciaries. This is known as federated architecture.
“This means that the health records will continue to be processed and stored at the same place where they are created, which has been happening prior to ABDM as well. The government will not have access to such data. No additional means of accessing such data is being created or envisaged in the current ecosystem,’’ the Ministry added.
It also noted that only the patient can share his record with other doctors/hospitals using different digital health systems after giving your consent.
Stating that ABDM does not store any medical records the explainer further noted that these are always created and stored by healthcare providers as per their retention policies and this will continue.
