ABDM for private clinics: HFR, HPR and Scan & Share What each registry is, how to register, and whether you have to.

A private clinic registers on the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and each doctor registers on the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR); the patient's side is the ABHA health account. A doctor's HPR application is checked by the State Medical Council, and a clinic's HFR application is checked by a district verifier appointed by the state. According to the official ABDM FAQ, none of this is compulsory: "Participation in ABDM is voluntary including for citizens. Participation of a healthcare facility or an institution is also voluntary and shall be taken by the respective management (government or private management)."

What are ABHA, HFR and HPR?

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) was launched in September 2021 and is run by the National Health Authority (NHA). Its building blocks are registries, each giving one party a single ID that every ABDM-connected app recognises. Three of them matter to a clinic.

ABHA belongs to the patient. A clinic does not need to issue one, and the ABDM FAQ is clear that it is "not mandatory for all citizens to get an ABHA Number". HPR and HFR belong to the provider side. The FAQ describes HPR as covering doctors of all systems of medicine, with registration open for modern medicine, dentistry, Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy, and other professionals "expected to start soon". HFR covers facilities in all these systems.

For scale: the Ministry of Health's year-end review, published by the Press Information Bureau in January 2026, put registrations as on 12 December 2025 at 7,47,000 healthcare professionals and 4,42,000 health facilities.

Is ABDM registration mandatory for a private clinic?

Not under any rule we could find. The ABDM FAQ, read on 22 October 2026, answers each part separately:

• Facilities: "Enrolment in Health Facility Registry is voluntary. The decision about participation will be taken by the management of the facility including State Governments/UT Administration."
• Doctors: "Enrolment in Healthcare Professionals Registry is voluntary." The same answer adds that government facilities "would be required to enroll" where their state government requires it.
• Council versus ABDM: "Registration in concerned Medical Council is a mandatory legal requirement which must be done for practicing healthcare. Registration in the digital health through ABDM, however, is voluntary."
• Patients: the Ministry told the Rajya Sabha in July 2022 that "Creation of ABHA number is voluntary" (PIB, 26 July 2022).

One condition follows once a clinic does join. The FAQ says that when management registers a facility, "it is essential for all the healthcare professionals serving the said facility/institution to register in Healthcare Professionals Registry". So a clinic on HFR should expect every doctor who sits there to have an HPR ID.

Two cautions. First, "voluntary" here is what the national FAQ says; a state scheme, an insurer panel or a government empanelment can set its own conditions, so if your clinic is on any such panel, ask that scheme's office in writing whether it needs your HFR ID. Second, HFR is not a licence. The FAQ says verifiers "will only verify the existence of such facilities and will not go into other legalities such as availability of permissions". Registering on HFR does not replace registration under your state's clinical establishments law; our clinic registration guide covers that.

How does a doctor register on HPR?

The FAQ estimates 20 to 25 minutes to fill the form, and says there is no fee for registration or for generating the ID. Keep these ready before you start:

• Your medical council Registration Certificate.
• Your degree or diploma certificate.
• Proof of employment, only if you are a government employee.
• The mobile number linked to your Aadhaar, for the OTP.

1. Open hpr.abdm.gov.in. On 22 October 2026 it redirected to the National Healthcare Providers Registry portal at nhpr.abdm.gov.in, which also handles facility registration.
2. Create your Healthcare Professional ID. The NHA's verifier SOP describes the route: choose to generate it via Aadhaar, give consent, verify the OTP sent to your Aadhaar-linked mobile, verify a mobile number, then pick a user ID and password. Screen labels may have changed since that SOP was written.
3. Fill the application. The FAQ lists the details sought: demographic, contact, registration, academic and place-of-work. Starred fields are mandatory; the FAQ says they let the council cross-check what you enter.
4. List every clinic or hospital where you work. The FAQ encourages applicants to list all of them.
5. Choose whether your profile is public. If it is, your name, registration number, qualification and experience become searchable; photo, address and phone follow your own settings.
6. Submit. The application goes to your State Medical Council, which verifies your credentials. Your ID is activated only after approval, and the FAQ warns that "discrepancies are likely to delay account activation".

Before you start, check that your name and registration details match what your council holds, since the council is the verifier. The FAQ says you can still apply if your name differs across documents, but any change has to be approved by the council. Our page on state medical councils has the councils' contact routes.

How does a private clinic register on HFR?

The person filling the form is the "facility manager", and that person needs a Healthcare Professional ID first. The FAQ explains it as the login that "ensures that no unauthorized person can access the health facility details". The FAQ estimates 20 to 30 minutes if everything is at hand. Keep ready:

• A clear photograph of the clinic building and one of the clinic board. The FAQ says both are uploaded during the application.
• Address proof. The FAQ lists acceptable examples: clinical establishment registration certificate, electricity bill, water bill, landline bill, rent agreement, title deed, property or land record, or any other proof your state accepts.
• The clinic's exact name as patients see it, pin code, opening days and hours, and the services you offer.

1. Log in with your Healthcare Professional ID, take the "Facility Manager" role and choose "Register a new facility".
2. If the portal shows possible duplicates, check them. The SOP tells facility managers to pick an existing record of their clinic rather than create a second one.
3. Fill the mandatory fields: ownership (Private), system of medicine, facility type (the SOP's list includes "Clinic/ Dispensary", "Dental Clinic", "Physiotherapy Clinic" and OPD-only AYUSH clinics), subtype, full address, pin code, and the location pin on the map.
4. Fill the self-declared details: OPD or IPD, working days and hours, contact numbers, and whether you use ABDM-compliant software. The SOP notes these fields are not shown to the verifier.
5. Upload the photographs and address proof.
6. e-Sign the application (the SOP names C-DAC's e-sign service) and submit. The clinic is given its 12-digit Facility ID and is listed as self-declared until verified.

Who verifies a private clinic, and how long it takes

The NHA's Standard Operating Procedure for verifiers says the State Mission Director's office appoints District Verifiers and District Nodal Officers in each district, and the District Verifier checks every facility in the district except those owned by the Central Government, which go to a National Verifier. Private clinics are explicitly in the District Verifier's list.

The verifier compares your address with the map location, checks that the name is complete and correct, and can raise a query instead of rejecting. The SOP tells verifiers not to verify a facility whose address does not match, not to reject over non-mandatory fields, and to decide within 30 days of submission. The FAQ gives a shorter usual figure, 15 working days, and says a confirmation goes to your registered email and mobile number when it is done, or a note of what to correct if it is not.

After approval, link your doctors. The FAQ says either the doctor or the facility can start the association in HFR, and the other side approves it.

How does Scan & Share issue an OPD token?

Scan & Share is the ABDM service that replaces the registration form with a QR code at the counter. The patient opens the ABHA app or another ABDM-enabled health records app (Aarogya Setu is one) and scans the clinic's QR. The FAQ lists what is shared: name, gender, mobile number, date of birth, ABHA address and ABHA number if linked, "with an implied consent from the user, for token generation". The patient gets a token number, and "when the given token number is called, the user can approach the registration counter to get the OP slip". Anything else the clinic needs is filled at the counter.

A Press Information Bureau backgrounder dated 6 July 2026 says the details are "integrated with the facility's Health Information System" and reports "over 23.21 crore ABHA-linked tokens" issued as on 18 June 2026. It cites an Indian Institute of Health Management Research study that found the service cut patient waiting times from about an hour to 2 to 5 minutes. The same backgrounder's list of Aarogya Setu 2.0 features calls the service "Scan & Register".

For a private clinic, the practical point is that Scan & Share does not come with HFR registration alone. The FAQ says tokens can be generated at "ABDM enabled health facilities where Scan and share is implemented", and the PIB backgrounder describes the patient's details flowing into the facility's own health information system, so in practice your clinic software has to support it. ABHA is voluntary for patients, so the counter still needs its normal registration route for everyone without one.

What changes at the clinic after you register?

Not much on day one. The FAQ says ABDM "does not insist that from the day of joining, you shall start digitization of every health record", and that no timeline for full migration has been decided. It also says ABDM does not store medical records: they stay with the provider's own system, and are shared only with the patient's consent. Your record-keeping duties do not move to ABDM; our post on how long to keep medical records covers them. How patient data must be handled is covered in the DPDP Act for clinics.

Keep the HFR record current. The FAQ says a change of clinic name or address shows as self-declared until it is verified again, and a change to a doctor's verified HPR details needs reverification.