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- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notified the Unique Health Identifier (UHID) Rules, 2021.The Rules have been issued under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.
- The Act provides for targeted delivery of subsidies and services to individuals residing in India by assigning them unique identity numbers, called Aadhaar numbers.
- The Ministry aims to create UHID for identification and authentication of beneficiaries in various health IT applications implemented by the Ministry.
- UHID will facilitate the integration of health data and the creation of electronic health records for citizens.
Key features of the Rules are:
- Creation of UHID: Aadhaar authentication will be used for establishing the UHID. Creation of UHID is voluntary. Health services will not be denied in the absence of UHID. The Ministry may require additional documents for the creation of UHID through an order.
- Use of UHID by entities: Entities will be permitted to provide users with an option to use Aadhaar voluntarily for creation of Health ID and share health information under various health IT applications.
- Requesting entity: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be the requesting entity for the purpose of providing Aadhaar authentication services for UHID. The requesting entity includes agencies and persons who submit Aadhaar numbers along with demographic or biometric information to the centralised Aadhaar database for authentication.
Source: PRS India
