Why Milestones Exist
The National Health Authority certifies ABDM integrations in three progressive stages, so a platform proves each capability before unlocking the next. Understanding the milestones is the single best way to plan your integration budget and timeline. (For costs, see our ABDM pricing guide.)
Milestone 1 (M1): ABHA Creation & Verification
What it proves: your software can create and verify ABHA numbers.
- ABHA creation via Aadhaar OTP and mobile OTP
- ABHA login/verification and profile fetch
- ABHA card generation and download
Typical timeline: 2–4 weeks including certification. This is where every hospital starts — powered by an ABHA ID Creation API.
Milestone 2 (M2): Health Information Provider (HIP)
What it proves: your system can link and share health records with patient consent.
- Care context linking (OTP, demographic, and Scan & Share flows)
- Consent notification handling from the HIE-CM
- FHIR R4 bundle generation for prescriptions, reports, and summaries
- Encrypted data transfer to requesting systems
Typical timeline: 4–8 weeks. The hard parts are FHIR validation and encryption — see FHIR R4 API development.
Milestone 3 (M3): Health Information User (HIU)
What it proves: your system can request, fetch, decrypt, and display records from other facilities.
- Consent request creation with purpose of use
- Health information fetching and decryption
- Rendering FHIR bundles into a clinician-friendly view
Typical timeline: 8–12 weeks cumulative for all three milestones.
Where Certifications Fail
- FHIR validation errors — bundles missing mandatory NHA profile elements.
- Webhook reliability — gateway callbacks that time out or return wrong acknowledgements.
- Consent edge cases — expiry, revocation, and partial date-range requests.
- Encryption mistakes — incorrect ECDH key handling during data push.
The Fast Path
Building all three milestones from scratch makes sense for software vendors. For individual hospitals, riding on an already-certified platform like the ABDM Connector (₹4,999 per hospital) skips the entire certification queue. Either way, Medi4u's NHA gateway & certification support gets you through on the first attempt.
