Skip to content
A product of Vaisara Innovations Latest use casesFAQs & glossaryContactus@vaisara.com

Knowledge centre

Resources

Standards, glossary and answers to the questions we hear most — everything you need to understand how BharathiExchange works.

Standards library

Built to the rulebook of each market

The core is standards-first; national profiles plug in on top. Choose a region to see how the platform aligns.

Glossary

Health data terms, in plain words

The acronyms you will meet across this site and in HIE programmes.

ABHA
Ayushman Bharat Health Account — the 14-digit health ID used to link a person’s records under ABDM.
ABDM
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission — India’s national programme for digital health infrastructure.
ADT
Admit, discharge, transfer — the HL7 v2 messages hospitals send when a patient moves through care.
Consent artefact
A digital record of what data a patient agreed to share, with whom, for what purpose and for how long.
EDI
Electronic data interchange — structured, machine-to-machine exchange of business documents such as claims.
EMPI
Enterprise Master Patient Index — the service that works out which records belong to the same person.
FHIR
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources — HL7’s modern API standard for health data.
HFR / HPR
Health Facility Registry and Healthcare Professionals Registry — ABDM’s verified directories.
HIE
Health Information Exchange — the network and services that let health data move securely between organisations.
HIP / HIU
Health Information Provider (shares data) and Health Information User (requests data) under ABDM.
HL7 v2
The long-established messaging standard used by most hospital systems for events, orders and results.
IBNR
Incurred but not reported — claims that have happened but not yet reached the payer; held as a reserve.
LOINC
Standard codes for laboratory tests and clinical observations.
NHCX
National Health Claims Exchange — India’s FHIR-based gateway for insurance claims.
Record locator
An index that knows which facility holds which document, so records can stay where they are created.
SNOMED CT
A comprehensive clinical terminology for diagnoses, findings and procedures.
X12 5010
The ASC X12 version used for healthcare administrative transactions such as 837 claims and 835 payments.

Frequently asked questions

All FAQs in one place

Grouped by topic. Each product page also carries its own FAQs.

FAQ · Platform

How the pieces fit together.

4 common questions.

Is BharathiExchange a centralised or federated HIE?

Hybrid. A central index holds identities, consent and a record locator, while detailed records can stay at the source facility and be fetched on demand. Selected data can also be stored centrally in the FHIR repository where policy allows.

Do hospitals need to replace their existing HIS or EMR?

No. The integration gateway connects to what is already running — HL7 v2 feeds, FHIR APIs, database extracts, CSV or SFTP drops — and translates them into the platform's standard model.

Can it run in our own data centre?

Yes. The platform deploys on a government sovereign cloud, an empanelled public cloud region, or on-premise infrastructure, using the same containerised build.

What are Government Connect APIs?

Secure, documented APIs that link the exchange to national systems such as health ID, insurance scheme, provider and facility registries, so eligibility and identity checks happen automatically.

FAQ · Health Information Exchange

Identity, consent and records.

5 common questions.

How do you match patients without a universal health ID?

The EMPI combines deterministic rules on strong identifiers with probabilistic and machine-learning scoring on names, date of birth, sex, phone and address. High scores link automatically; borderline scores go to a human data steward.

Who decides who can see a patient's record?

The patient. Every request for data is checked against a consent artefact that specifies purpose, requester, data types and time window. Patients can review and revoke consent from the app.

Which clinical data types are exchanged?

Encounters, diagnoses, lab results, imaging reports, prescriptions, immunisations, allergies, discharge summaries and other clinical documents, represented as FHIR R4 resources.

How are local hospital codes standardised?

The terminology server maps local codes to SNOMED CT, LOINC and ICD. AI proposes mappings; trained coders approve them before they go live.

Is every access logged?

Yes. Every read and write produces an immutable audit event recording who accessed what, when, and under which consent.

FAQ · EDI integration

Claims and administrative transactions.

5 common questions.

Which EDI standards are supported?

ASC X12 005010 transaction sets — 270/271, 276/277, 278, 834, 835, 837P/I/D, 820 and 999/TA1 — plus NCPDP D.0 for pharmacy and FHIR-based claim bundles for national claims exchanges.

Can we connect to payers that don't use X12?

Yes. The gateway handles FHIR claims, payer-specific JSON or XML formats and flat files, and maps them to a common internal claim model.

How are EDI errors handled?

Files are validated against SNIP levels 1–7 before submission. Rejections and 999 errors are turned into plain-language messages and routed to the right billing work queue.

How long does onboarding a new trading partner take?

Most partners are configuration rather than code: envelopes, IDs, companion-guide rules and transport. Timelines depend mainly on the partner's own testing cycle.

Can clinical documents be attached to claims?

Yes. Because EDI sits on top of the HIE, supporting evidence such as discharge summaries or lab reports can be pulled from the record and attached to a prior authorisation or claim.

FAQ · AI solutions

How the intelligence works and is governed.

5 common questions.

Does the AI make clinical decisions?

No. AI suggests matches, codes, summaries and risk scores; clinicians, coders and data stewards review and decide.

What data are the models trained on?

De-identified or federated data only, under the data-governance rules agreed with the programme owner. Identifiable patient data is not used to train shared models.

Can users see why the AI made a suggestion?

Yes. Each output carries its supporting evidence — the highlighted text span for a code, the field-level weights for a patient match, or the contributing factors for a denial-risk score.

How is model quality monitored over time?

Each model has a model card and is monitored for accuracy, drift and bias across groups, with scheduled reviews and a rollback path.

Can we switch individual AI features off?

Yes. Each AI service is enabled per tenant and per workflow, so programmes can adopt them gradually.

FAQ · Actuarial

Pricing, reserving and decisions.

5 common questions.

Who is the actuarial layer for?

Programme owners in government, insurers and TPAs, and hospital finance teams — anyone who has to set a budget, a premium, a package rate or a reserve and defend it.

Where does the data come from?

Directly from the exchange: enrolment (834), claims and payments (837/835) and coded clinical data from the HIE. That removes the months usually spent collecting and cleaning extracts.

Do your models replace a qualified actuary?

No. The platform automates data preparation, triangles, projections and scenario runs; qualified actuaries set assumptions, review results and sign off reports.

Can we test policy changes before making them?

Yes. Scenario tools show the cost and budget effect of changes such as adding packages, revising rates, expanding eligibility or shifting inflation assumptions.

How often are the numbers refreshed?

Experience dashboards update as claims flow through the exchange; formal reserving and pricing reviews run on the cycle your governance sets, typically monthly or quarterly.

FAQ · Standards

Compliance and national frameworks.

4 common questions.

Is the platform ABDM-compatible?

It is designed to work with ABDM building blocks — ABHA, HIP/HIU flows, consent management and the HPR/HFR registries. Formal integration approval is completed with the relevant authority for each deployment.

Can one deployment serve more than one country's rules?

Yes. The core is standards-based, and national profiles — identifiers, consent rules, claim formats — are configured as plug-in layers.

Which FHIR version do you use?

FHIR R4 is the primary version, with R5 support where national guides require it and conversion between versions at the gateway.

Do you hold certifications such as ISO 27001?

The platform is built to align with ISO 27001, ISO 27799, HIPAA and India's DPDP Act controls. Certification status for a specific deployment is shared during the briefing.

FAQ · Stakeholders

Participation and benefits.

3 common questions.

What does it cost a small clinic to join?

Programme owners usually set participation models. Small facilities can connect through a lightweight web portal or a partner EMR, with no dedicated integration hardware.

How do patients access their records?

Through a patient app or portal where they can view records from all connected providers, share them, and manage consent.

Can labs and pharmacies send data without an EMR?

Yes — through standard lab result feeds, e-prescription APIs, or file upload via the partner portal.

FAQ · Rollout

Timelines and delivery.

3 common questions.

Where do most programmes start?

Usually with a pilot district or a hospital network plus one payer, which proves identity matching, consent and claims flows before wider rollout.

How long before the first value shows up?

Early wins — ADT alerts, shared lab results and electronic eligibility checks — typically arrive in the Connect phase, before the full platform is in place.

Who runs the platform after go-live?

Either Vaisara Innovations operates it as a managed service, or the programme's own team runs it after a structured knowledge transfer.

FAQ · Security

Data protection and operations.

4 common questions.

Where is the data stored?

In-country, in the hosting environment the programme owner chooses. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

How do third-party apps connect securely?

Through OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect and SMART on FHIR, with scoped access tokens and consent checks on every call.

What happens if a data centre fails?

The core runs active-active across zones with a separate disaster-recovery site, so exchange traffic fails over to another zone or the recovery site while data stays replicated.

How are breaches detected?

Continuous monitoring of audit logs and access patterns, with anomaly alerts routed to a 24×7 operations team.

Still have a question?

Write to the team and we’ll get back to you within two working days.