ABDM compliance is structured into four progressive milestones — M1 through M4 — each building on the previous one. This guide breaks down what each milestone requires, the NHA role your system takes on, and the typical timeline for implementation.
Milestone 1 (M1): Identity & Registration
M1 is the foundation. Your system becomes an Identity Provider — it can create, verify, and link ABHA IDs. It has two components:
M1 — IDENTITY & REGISTRATION
Health Facility Registration (HFR)
Register your hospital on the national Health Facility Registry with a unique HFR ID.
ABHA ID Creation & Linking
Create, verify, or link ABHA IDs for patients at registration. Takes under 2 minutes per patient.
What you need: Your hospital's legal details for HFR registration, and access to the ABDM sandbox/production APIs for ABHA linking. If you're using a solution like ClaimsLens, the registration can be completed in days.
Milestone 2 (M2): Health Information Provider (HIP)
M2 makes your system a Health Information Provider. Your hospital must create structured health records in FHIR R4, link them as “care contexts” to the patient's ABHA address, and share them with authorised entities upon patient consent. M2 also covers allowing users to discover their health records at your facility.
| M2 Functionality | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Link health records with ABHA address | Tag clinical encounters as care contexts linked to the patient's ABHA. |
| Discovery & Link | Allow patients to discover records held at your facility via their PHR app. |
| Save user consents | Store consent notifications from the HIE-CM (consent manager). |
| Share health records on consent | Package and transfer encrypted FHIR data to authorised requesters. |
What this means in practice: When a patient visits your hospital, the clinical data (diagnosis, procedures, prescriptions, lab results) must be captured in structured FHIR R4 format and linked to the patient's ABHA ID.
Milestone 3 (M3): Health Information User (HIU)
M3 makes your system a Health Information User. Your software can now request and fetch health records from other ABDM-registered providers — giving clinicians a longitudinal view of the patient's history across facilities, with granular, time-bound consent.
| M3 Functionality | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Requesting Consent | Your system sends a consent request to the patient via the HIE-CM. |
| Storing Consent Artefacts | Store the signed consent artefact for audit and compliance. |
| Getting Health Records | Fetch encrypted FHIR data from other providers after consent is granted. |
| Display Health Records | Render the fetched records in a clinician-readable format. |
Typical implementation timeline
| Milestone | NHA Role | What's Involved | Typical Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Identity Provider | HFR registration + ABHA creation/linking | 3–7 days |
| M2 | HIP | FHIR R4 records, care context linking, discovery, consent-based sharing | 1–2 weeks |
| M3 | HIU | Request consent, fetch & display records from other providers | 2–4 weeks |
| M4 | NHPR Integration | Native registration of health professionals & facilities | 2–4 weeks |
| Total | — | End-to-end ABDM compliance | 6–10 weeks |
These timelines assume a bolt-on integration approach (not building from scratch). The exact timeline depends on your HMIS type and the integration tier that fits your hospital.
Milestone 4 (M4): NHPR Integration
M4 integrates your system with the National Healthcare Providers Registry (NHPR) — a comprehensive repository of registered healthcare professionals and health facilities across India. It enables native registration of doctors (across modern medicine, Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy, and more) and facilities (hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies, blood banks) directly from your software.
Frequently asked questions
What is ABDM M1?
M1 is the first ABDM milestone covering the Identity Provider role. It includes Health Facility Registration (HFR) on the national registry and ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) ID creation, verification, and linking for patients.
What is ABDM M2?
M2 is the Health Information Provider (HIP) milestone. Hospitals must create structured digital health records using FHIR R4 format, link them as care contexts to the patient's ABHA address, enable record discovery via PHR apps, store consent notifications, and share encrypted health data with authorised requesters upon patient consent.
What is ABDM M3?
M3 is the Health Information User (HIU) milestone. It enables hospitals to request consent from patients, store signed consent artefacts, fetch encrypted FHIR health records from other ABDM-registered providers, and display them in a clinician-readable format — giving a longitudinal view of patient history across facilities.
How long does it take to complete all three milestones?
With the right integration partner, M1 can be completed in days, M2 in 1–2 weeks, M3 in 2–4 weeks, and M4 (NHPR) in 2–4 weeks. ClaimsLens handles all four milestones through its bolt-on integration — typical timeline is 6–10 weeks end-to-end. NHCX claims integration is a separate workstream built on top of M1–M3.