How to Link ABHA Numbers to Patient Records: A Practical Guide for Clinics

By the Medixar team · Published 13 October 2026 · 7 min read

What ABHA is

ABHA — the Ayushman Bharat Health Account — is a random 14-digit number that ties together a person's health records from different providers. Alongside the number, each person can choose an ABHA address, an easy-to-remember username in the form name@abdm, which they use in the ABHA app and other personal health record apps to receive and share records. Getting one is free.

Creating an ABHA is voluntary. Treat it as something you offer patients at registration, not a condition of being seen.

How a patient gets one

The quickest route is the official portal, abha.abdm.gov.in, or the ABHA app, using an OTP sent to the mobile number linked to the patient's Aadhaar. ABDM has offered other routes as well; check the portal for the current options before you print instructions for your front desk.

What "linking a record" means

Your clinic keeps its own records. Linking means tagging a record you created — a consultation, a prescription, a lab report, a discharge summary — to the patient's ABHA, so that it can be found from their health record app and, with their permission, by another doctor.

The patient decides who sees what. Records move to another provider only when the patient consents, and consent can cover selected records rather than everything. Nothing about ABHA turns your records into a public database.

What your clinic needs to take part

1. Register the facility on ABDM's Health Facility Registry (HFR).
2. Register each doctor on the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR).
3. Use software that has passed ABDM integration. ABDM describes integration in three milestones: creating and verifying ABHA numbers (M1); acting as a Health Information Provider that links records and shares them with consent (M2); and acting as a Health Information User that requests and views records from others with consent (M3).

The registries and the milestone requirements are managed by the National Health Authority — confirm the current steps on abdm.gov.in before you start.

Scan and Share: ABHA at the registration counter

Since October 2022, a facility can display a QR code at its OPD counter. The patient scans it with the ABHA app or another health record app, their ABHA profile reaches your registration desk instantly, and they receive a token — no queue for a form, no misspelt names. The National Health Authority reported more than three crore tokens generated this way by mid-2024.

The Digital Health Incentive Scheme

The government pays facilities for records they link to patients' ABHAs. Under the terms the National Health Authority issued in April 2026, for April to September 2026:

• payment starts only above 100 qualifying transactions a month, and only records linked to a KYC-verified ABHA count;
• a linked diagnostic report or discharge summary earns ₹10; a prescription, OP consultation, immunisation record or invoice earns ₹5;
• when records are shared with consent, the provider receiving them earns ₹10 and the provider sharing them ₹5;
• Scan and Share tokens no longer earn an incentive;
• payments are capped at ₹5 crore per facility.

Check the current terms before you count on it. The scheme has been amended repeatedly since it began in January 2023, and the April 2026 terms ran to September 2026. Figures you may see elsewhere — ₹20 a record, or older caps — are out of date.

A front-desk checklist

• Ask every new patient whether they have an ABHA — and offer, never require, help to create one.
• Record the ABHA number exactly as the patient's app shows it; a mistyped digit links nothing.
• Put the Scan and Share QR code where patients queue, with a one-line explanation.
• Explain consent in one sentence: "Your records stay with us; they go to another doctor only if you approve it in your app."
• Make sure the doctor's HPR registration and the facility's HFR registration are complete before go-live.

Where Medixar stands

We would rather say this plainly. Medixar records each patient's ABHA number on their chart at registration, and its ABDM consent and record-exchange flows are built and tested against ABDM's sandbox. Production certification is still pending. Until it completes, Medixar cannot link records to patients' health record apps in production, and linked records made through it would not count towards the incentive scheme. If live ABDM exchange matters to your clinic now, ask us where certification stands before you decide.

For the bigger picture on what ABDM means for clinics in Kerala, see Why Kerala's clinics need ABDM-ready software.

Sources

• Press Information Bureau, ABHA explainer, April 2024.
• Press Information Bureau, Rajya Sabha reply on voluntary ABHA creation, February 2024.
• Press Information Bureau, Scan and Share, June 2024.
• National Health Authority, Digital Health Incentive Scheme, Corrigendum 7 (April 2026). Current terms: abdm.gov.in/dhis.

This article explains the ABDM and DHIS rules as published up to 13 October 2026. It is not legal advice; the National Health Authority changes these schemes from time to time, so confirm the current position on abdm.gov.in.