Healthcare in India

We keep solving public health insurance the same way.

Build a portal. Add a login. Digitise the form. Call it done.

Nobody asks whether the person filing the claim wanted a form in the first place.

That's the real gap in most public health insurance digitisation efforts. Not technology. Not budget. Not even intent.

The gap is that we treat "digital" as the outcome, when digital is just the delivery mechanism. The outcome was always supposed to be: does the patient get reimbursed without losing a week of income chasing paperwork? Does the hospital get paid without a finance team dedicated to fighting rejections? Does the whole system get faster to trust?

A portal doesn't answer any of that. A portal just moves the paperwork online.

We've normalised something absurd

Why public health insurance digitization keeps failing patients: portals digitise paperwork, but product thinking fixes the workflow underneath it."

read the original unedited piece at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/public-health-insurance-digitisation-needs-product-thinking-ghosh-1pkaf/

Karnataka government has approved the phased rollout of SAMASTA, a digital platform aimed at replacing the mountains of manual records maintained by ASHA workers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), health inspectors and other community health workers, in a move expected to cut their data-entry workload by around 75%.

SAMASTA will simplify the 485 data elements in the ASHA diary to 134 key data points, reducing duplication and enabling data to be captured at source only once. The platform will work both online and offline and integrate family IDs, Aadhaar-based verification, Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) IDs and other government digital health systems.

The platform will also be integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the national digital health ecosystem. The state plans to roll it out in phases after training staff, while ensuring data security, privacy and compliance with ABDM guidelines.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly changing how healthcare works—and India is taking a major step to lead this change.

The IndiaAI Mission, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), has launched a global call for real-life examples of how AI is helping healthcare systems, especially in developing countries.

Researchers, doctors, and innovators are invited to share short summaries of projects where AI has improved diagnosis, patient care, or hospital efficiency. The best stories will be published in a “Casebook on AI in Health”, to be launched in 2026 at the India-AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

The idea is simple: to show that AI isn’t just about futuristic technology—it’s about real, working solutions that make healthcare faster, safer, and more inclusive.

This initiative also builds on India’s broader mission “Safe and Trusted AI”, which ensures that AI systems are transparent, fair, and ethical.

👉 Read the article here: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/indiaai-mission-who-to-spotlight-ai-applications-in-health-systems/articleshow/124664430.cms?from=mdr

An analysis by the government and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) found that hospitals are inflating treatment costs for patients and overcharging those with higher covers, the source said earlier this week.

Across India’s vast healthcare network, which relies heavily on more than two million hospital beds, traditional methods of patient monitoring in general wards largely depend on periodic manual checks. This conventional system often leads to delayed detection of health deterioration, leaving many vulnerable patients at risk.

A recent study published in Frontiers in Medical Technology (FMT) indicates that this scenario might soon change, as an AI-based Early Warning System (EWS) has shown promising potential to detect early signs of health deterioration up to 16 hours in advance.

Conducted at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), the study highlights the benefits of continuous health monitoring in non-ICU settings, where periodic spot checks have historically limited early intervention.

The AI-powered Early Warning System (EWS) demonstrated its ability to continuously monitor vital signs like heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. By detecting potential health deterioration up to 16 hours ahead of critical emergencies, the system gives healthcare providers vital extra time to respond, promising to revolutionize patient care in general wards.

more at https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-it/ai-system-predicts-patient-health-issues-16-hours-in-advance-study/114690122

GST Council: The GoM's Terms of Reference (ToR) include proposing tax rates for various categories of health/medical insurance, such as individual, group, family floater, and other medical insurance for senior citizens, middle class, and persons with mental illness

Additionally, the panel is tasked with suggesting tax rates for life insurance, including term insurance, life insurance with investment plans (both individual and group), and re-insurance.

read more at https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/gst-council-forms-group-of-ministers-gom-to-review-tax-rate-on-health-life-insurance/113382862

Mainstreaming of Ayush is one of the core strategies in the National Health Mission, which seeks to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care

This has been taken up in 13,222 Ayush facilities co-located under NHM -- 6,612 primary health centres, 3,035 community health centres, 469 district hospitals, 2,916 health facilities above sub-centre but below block level and 190 health facilities other than community health centres at or above the block level but below the district level.

more at https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/policy/mainstreaming-of-ayush-a-core-strategy-in-national-health-mission-says-govt/112151772

India plans to spend a provisional sum of Rs 90,171 crore ($10.8 billion) for healthcare in the coming fiscal year, increasing from Rs 79,221 crore ($9.5 billion) previously. Some of it will go to the following key projects:

• extension of the health assurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, to include 1.5 million community health workers called ASHA (accredited social health activist) and rural child care (Anganwadi) workers and helpers
• establishment of more medical and nursing colleges to help address the shortage of medical professionals
• the nationwide rollout of the U-WIN immunisation management platform and vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer among girls aged 9-14, which both contribute to Mission Indradhanush's goal of reaching 90% vaccination coverage of Indian children
• improved nutrition and better services by upgrading Anganwadi centres 
• increased budget for biotechnology R&D to Rs 1,100 crore ($132.5 million) from Rs 500 crore ($60.2 million) in the previous year

Healthcare IT news speaks to industry leaders in this opinion piece

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/asia/industry-seeks-clarity-indias-2024-tech-investment-health

Healthworkers being trained on BHAVYA in Motihari district - The Bihar Health Application Yojana for All.

BHAVYA is a revolutionary digital health program which champions the visionary insight of the state of Bihar in fast forwarding the state by several decades by digitizing the entire state health infrastructure in an integrated and citizen focussed manner

more at the source at Dainik Bhaskar - https://www.bhaskar.com/local/bihar/motihari/news/health-officers-and-workers-were-given-training-on-bhavya-app-131952681.html

The sudden second wave in the country left the government and the citizens in a fix. But ever since the second wave hit, the country has been constantly upgrading its healthcare system so that it can stand up to any challenge that comes next. Read on to know how India worked on its healthcare system.

India’s April Covid hell brought immense agony. Close to 20% of all official deaths reported in India due to Covid-19, occurred over the four weeks of April. May brought dismay. While it’s a best-kept secret that the deaths were not being fully counted, the officially declared toll was 83,135.

India’s “oxy-panic and distress made global headlines. The manic scramble for oxygen landed in courts, which told the central government “You can put your head in the sand like an ostrich, we will not."

The distress created anger, which like a tsunami, dwarfed the Modi government's popular mandate of 2019. Aware the second surge had eroded the governement's political equity and a third could entail political calamity, the government prepared to battle the mutating pandemic and hostile opposition awaiting a political opportunity

CHALLENGES BROUGHT CHANGE

Did India change after the first two waves of the pandemic? Has adversity shaken off the seven decades of apathy towards building public health infrastructure?

Through a series of review meetings starting March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started a status check of decisions taken on availability of oxygen, ventilators, oxygen plants and other essentials since March 2020.

ADVERSITY BROUGHT REMEDY

The centre had started planning, ramping up the infrastructure in March-April 2020. Shortage of medical equipment like ventilators and cylinders was identified. Three companies were short listed to manufacture India-specific ventilators.

Cut to 2021, the total number of ventilators is up to 57,557 from 16,644.

Bulk of funds for this came from the PMCares fund, criticised by the opposition.

OXYGEN AVAILABILITY & PREPAREDNESS

As cylinders need refilling and facilities that can produce large amounts of Liquor Medical Oxygen were located in remote regions, the Centre keen to reduce the transportation time and upgrade availability, focused on creating local large, medium and micro-oxygen generation hubs.

OXYGEN GENERATION PLANTS

One of the key focus area for quick availability of oxygen in case of a crisis are PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) plants.

The plants are being established in hospitals to enable them to become self-sufficient in generation of Oxygen. Under PM Cares, 162 PSA plants were sanctioned in 2020, out of which 77 are up and running and the rest will be on stream by July ’21.

An additional 1,051 PSA Plants sanctioned under PM Cares Fund in March & April 21 are being procured through DRDO and CSIR and will be installed in the next three months in phases.

This means by September, there will be over 1,200 oxygen plants up and running with the public health facilities.

CRYOGENIC TANKERS

To future-proof the public health system against a feared third wave, the government went in for capacity enhancement of Cryogenic tankers.

LIQUID MEDICAL OXYGEN AVAILABILITY

To ramp up oxygen supply for future production of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), manufacturing was ramped up by more than 10 times from a paltry 900 MT/day in pre-Covid times to 9,300+ MT/day (as on 17th May 2021). At the current rate of production of 9,300 MT/day, India achieved the total LMO production of 2019 over in May.

read more at https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/after-second-wave-has-india-upgraded-its-healthcare-system-for-next-big-challenge-read-to-know-1820077-2021-06-28

A clinic doctor I was speaking with recently has been in practice for over a decade. Runs a small setup, sees a steady stream of patients every day, and handles most of the admin herself because hiring for it never quite made sense.

Somewhere in that conversation, the Digital Health Incentive Scheme came up. She asked me what that actually meant for a practice her size.

She had never looked into registering her clinic under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, what it would take, or what it would mean for the kind of patients walking through her door every day. Under the current scheme, a clinic earns Rs. 5 for every OPD prescription it creates and links to a patient's KYC verified ABHA ID, once it crosses 100 such records in a month. No procedure, no insurance claim, just the record itself.

Run the math on her own patient volume.

15 patients/day × 30 days = 450 patients/month

450 − 100 (threshold) = 350 eligible

350 × Rs. 5 = Rs. 1,750/month

Every month. For doing something her front desk could already be doing.

Ten plus years in practice. Never worked out what that meant for her, because nobody had ever laid it out for a clinic, not a hundred-bed hospital.

This is not a one-off story. It is the pattern.

read more

📋 150 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢s𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
📑 52 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬
🔄 202 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐍𝐇𝐂𝐗 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

That's what an interoperable health insurance claims exchange looks like in practice.

A significant milestone for Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.'s MediXcel HMIS - one of India's most connected hospital information systems with ~6 crore ABHA-linked health records. MediXcel is now live with an early NHCX pilot across four hospitals in two states, enabling standardised digital exchange of pre-authorisations and insurance claims.

Early pilot results:
✅ 150 pre-authorisations processed (95% already approved, rest queried /cancelled)
✅ 52 insurance claims submitted electronically

These first 202 live NHCX transactions demonstrate that standardised, API-driven claims exchange is moving from framework to real-world implementation. For hospitals, this means fewer manual processes, faster communication with payers, and a more efficient claims workflow.

We're grateful to our hospital partners and the Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd. engineering, product, and implementation teams for making this milestone possible. We look forward to expanding NHCX adoption and helping build a more connected, paperless healthcare ecosystem.

National Health Authority (NHA) Aditya Patkar #NHCX #ABDM #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #Interoperability #HealthInsurance #HMIS #MediXcel #Plus91| 11 commentaires sur LinkedIn

The 16th Elets Healthcare Innovation Awards celebrated excellence, innovation, and leadership in healthcare, held at Le Méridien, Hyderabad. Organised by Elets Technomedia with knowledge partner eHealth Magazine, the Summit carried the transformative theme: "Digitising Healthcare, Delivering Innovation."

• Visionary Leader Transforming Health & Medical Education: Shri. Damodar Raja Narasimha, Hon’ble Minister, Health, Family Welfare & Medical Education, Government of Telangana
  
• Visionary Leader Transforming India’s Innovation Landscape: Shri Duddilla Sridhar Babu, Hon’ble Minister, IT, Electronics, Industries & Legislative Affairs, Government of Telangana
  
• Global Diplomacy for Healthcare Collaboration Award: Dr. Y Kiron, Honorary Consul, Republic of Bulgaria (Telangana & Andhra Pradesh)
  
• Outstanding Digital Innovation Leadership in Healthcare: B Sundar, IFS, Special Secretary, IT & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh
  
• Excellence in Health & Wellness Leadership: Dr. Basanta Kumar Behera, Senior Consultant & Chief Medical Officer, NTPC Ltd.
  
• Excellence in Women & Child Care: Abbott Laboratories – Project: Redefining Antenatal Care with Influenza Vaccination
• Excellence in Hair Restoration & Transplants: DHI Medical Group (2025–2026)
• Leading Diagnostic Chain: Lupin Diagnostics Ltd.
• Top Health Awareness Campaign: Cipla EMEU – Campaign: Breathefree
• CSR in Healthcare: Jubilant Bhartia Foundation – Project: Jubicare Healthcare
• Excellence in Health & Wellness – Product & Technology: Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.
• Top Healthcare Insurance Company: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd.
• Emerging FinTech Innovation in Healthcare Supply Chain – 2025: Medscore
• Excellence in Hospital Design Architecture: NOVA Design Build – Project: Omega Hospitals
• Top Digital Healthcare & AI Technology: Vertiv Energy Pvt. Ltd.
• Top Pharma Innovation: Meghmani Lifesciences Ltd. – Project: Lumispark
• Outstanding Contribution to Preventive Healthcare: Apollo ProHealth
• Excellence in HealthTech Startup: Dfine Bio-Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
• Most Advanced Use of AI/ML in Healthcare: Transasia Biomedicals Ltd.
• Excellence in Patient-Centric Initiative: Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
• Excellence in High-End Diagnostics: Lupin Diagnostics Ltd.
• Excellence in Orthopaedic Care: Ortho-One Orthopaedic Speciality Centre
• Most Impactful Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
• Top Healthcare Insurance Company: IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance Company Ltd.
• Leading Diagnostic Chain: Max Lab
• Best Use of CSR Budget for Menstrual Health and Awareness: HLL Management Academy
• Most Innovative Brand Launch: Meghmani Lifesciences Ltd. – Project: Mission Muscle Health: India’s First Therapeutic Answer to Sarcopenia
• Leading Brand in Medical Devices: Poly Medicure Ltd.
• Excellence in Healthcare Innovation: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd.
• Most Impactful Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Aster Digital Health – Project: Digital Health at Aster: Unlocking the Future of Phygital Care
• Outstanding Digital Transformation in Health Insurance: IHX Pvt. Ltd.
• Most Impactful Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Tekisho Infotech
• Outstanding Investor in Healthcare & Lifesciences: Tata Capital Healthcare Fund
• Leading Orthopaedic Leader: Dr. David V Rajan, Chairman & MD, Ortho-One Orthopaedic Speciality Centre
  
• Outstanding Healthcare CEO: Swapn Malpani, CEO – Emerging Markets & Europe (EMEU), Cipla
  
• Leading Digital Health Leader: Umesh Kumar, Associate Director, IQVIA RDS (India) Pvt. Ltd.
  
• Top Female Leader in Healthcare: Payal Bhayana, AVP – Growth & Strategy, Felix Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
  
• Emerging Healthcare Leader: Dr. Srinivasa Jayachandra
• Leading Occupational Health Physician: Dr. Sabita Sinha, Oncologist, JSS Homoeopathy
  
• Top AI Scientist in Healthcare: Dr. Sridhar Yeshamaina

Himanshu Baid has been elected as Vice President; Varun Khanna as Secretary; and Rishubh Gupta, as Treasurer of the leading healthcare industry association

Joining Shah in the new leadership are Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd as Senior Vice President and Himanshu Baid, Managing Director, Poly Medicure Ltd as Vice President, Varun Khanna, Group Managing Director, Quality Care India Ltd, elected as Secretary, NATHEALTH, and Rishubh Gupta, Managing Director, India and Neighboring Markets, Roche Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd, as Treasurer, NATHEALTH.

This distinguished team of industry leaders brings a wealth of expertise and experience to drive NATHEALTH’s mission of advancing India’s healthcare landscape and ensuring equitable access to quality care.

read the original unedited article at https://biovoicenews.com/women-power-at-nathealth-ameera-shah-elected-as-president-sangita-reddy-as-senior-vice-president/

Bangalore based MicrobioTx has introduced a new test that profiles the gut microbiome using a simple fingerprick blood sample. With this test, gut microbiome profiling, which was earlier only possible by stool sample, will now be possible with a finger-prick without the need to collect a stool sample.

MicrobioTx’s Gut Function Test (GFT) is clinically validated in trials at Indian research institutes and has been recently approved by the Indian regulator. The commercial launch of MicrobioTx's GFT is supported by a grant from DPIIT through the Institute of Life Science, Bhubaneshwar.

read more at https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/microbiotx-launches-indias-first-fingerprick-based-gut-microbiome-test/115046786?utm_source=Mailer&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=ethealth_news_2024-11-08&dt=2024-11-08&em=bnJpcC5uaWhhbGFuaUBnbWFpbC5jb20=

Mumbai University will be collaborating with city hospitals to develop artificial intelligence (AI) models that can help in the early detection and management of diseases, mainly in women. As part of this AI in healthcare initiative, the university aims to substantially reduce the disease load and increase the percentage of screenings.

It will help in providing AI-based solutions to the healthcare sector with inputs from domain experts in these hospitals. While it has already tied up with hospitals such as the Tata Memorial Hospital and Nanavati, this network will be broad-based in the future for better outcomes.

read the entire article at ET Healthworld - https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-it/mumbai-university-to-tie-up-with-hospitals-to-develop-ai-model/113397960?utm_source=Mailer&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=ethealth_news_2024-09-17&dt=2024-09-17&em=bnJpcC5uaWhhbGFuaUBnbWFpbC5jb20=

In the latest crackdown on fixed dose combination drugs, which is the Centre's biggest in 6 yrs, the government banned 156 fixed-dose combination medicines, including antibiotics used for fever and colds, painkillers, and multivitamins, saying that they are ‘likely to involve risk to human beings’

While only CDSCO can issue licenses, makers convince state licensing authorities to approve manufacturing.

The CEO, of Lupin Digital Health, Sidharth Srinivasan, spoke with ETHealthworld. about how the perception of cardiac rehab is witnessing a significant shift. He spoke about the major insights and adoption trends registered over one year since the launch of their digital therapeutic platform Lupin's Lyfe. 

Summarizing their talk, he mentioned that the program has grown in 3 ways:

1. the acceptance of digital interventions has increased in the cardiology community. Over 700 cardiologists across 20 cities actively prescribe Lupin’s LYFE, our digital therapeutics, and more than 90 per cent of patients are satisfied with the service.

2.  conducted and published real-world evidence studies, including two trials and two consensus statements.

3. LDH has been able to reach out to patients, with around 5000 patients signing up for months of rehab.

His comments also shed light on some of their plans for the the future which included plans to conduct India's largest digital therapeutic study, involving around 1000 patients, to comprehensively showcase the impact of digital therapeutics on cardiac rehab.

He mentioned that Lupin was actively utilising technology to simplify backend processes, among which was the use of AI to analyse patient reports.

read the entire unedited version of interaction here: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/pharma/pharma-industry/lupin-digital-health-planning-indias-largest-study-on-impact-of-digital-therapeutics-on-cardiac-rehab/108653359

Digital tools are increasingly being applied to support the response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in India and elsewhere globally.

This article draws from global frameworks to explore the use of digital tools in the state of Kerala across the domains of communication, surveillance, clinical management, non-clinical support, and core health system readiness and response.

Kerala is considered India’s first digital state, with the highest percentage of households with computers (24%) and the internet (51%) in India, 95% mobile phone penetration, 62% smartphone penetration and 75% digital literacy. Kerala has long been a model for the early adoption of digital technology for education and health.

As part of the pandemic response, technology has been used across private and public sectors, including law enforcement, health, information technology and education. Efforts have sought to ensure timely access to health information, facilitate access to entitlements, monitor those under quarantine and track contacts, and provide healthcare services though telemedicine.

Kerala’s COVID-19 pandemic response showcases the diverse potential of digital technology, the importance of building on a strong health system foundation, the value of collaboration, and the ongoing challenges of data privacy and equity in digital access.