The National Health Authority (NHA), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in collaboration with the IndiaAI Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, convened the AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026 today at the A. V. Rama Rao Auditorium, IISc Bengaluru. The two-day national showcase brings together policymakers, technology innovators, insurers, Third Party Administrators (TPAs), healthcare providers, academia and AI startups to demonstrate AI-enabled solutions for strengthening health claims management under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

The event commenced with the ceremonial lamp lighting followed by the inaugural session. Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, delivered the keynote address. The session was also addressed by Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Chief Executive Officer, National Health Authority, Ms. Jyoti Yadav, Joint Secretary (PMJAY), National Health Authority; and Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc Bengaluru.

A major highlight of the showcase was the presentation of AI/ML-based solutions developed under the hackathon across three critical problem statements aimed at improving the speed, accuracy and transparency of adjudication and integrity of claims submissions under AB PM-JAY.

The first problem statement focused on Clinical Document Classification and Compliance with Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs). Winning teams showcased solutions capable of automatically classifying healthcare documents and performing multilingual OCR on low-quality scans to extract structured clinical and billing information along with confidence scores and provenance. The solutions also demonstrated capabilities for identifying mandatory visual elements such as stamps and signatures and generating explainable adjudication outputs based on Standard Treatment Guidelines and policy compliance requirements.

The second problem statement focused on Radiological Image-Based Condition Detection and Report Correlation. The winning teams demonstrated assistive AI solutions capable of interpreting radiological images such as X-rays, CT scans and MRIs to help adjudicators understand image contents, correlate findings with hospital-submitted reports and validate the claimed condition, disease stage and treatment timeline under Standard Treatment Guidelines.

The third problem statement focused on Document Forgery and Deepfake Detection. The winning teams presented AI/ML-based solutions aimed at detecting forged medical documents submitted during claims processing, including tampered discharge summaries, manipulated bills, ghost identities and fabricated medical reports. The solutions were designed to support digital claims adjudication and strengthen programme integrity under AB PM-JAY.

Addressing the gathering, Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India informed that India AI mission aims to bring benefit to the common citizen and AI can be leveraged to attain this aim. He said that India is uniquely positioned to demonstrate how AI can build upon the country's digital public infrastructure to deliver services at scale across sectors such as healthcare, education and agriculture. He appreciated NHA's initiative in bringing AI solutions to healthcare issues.

Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO NHA provided the background of the auto-adjudication hackathon which is the third hackathon organized by NHA to promote AI solutions in the healthcare industry. He informed that NHA's inhouse auto adjudication efforts reduced average claim processing time from 20 days to nearly four hours.

Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director IISc, Bengaluru noted AI's role in early disease detection and how it provides tangible benefits to the citizen.

Ms Jyoti Yadav, JS, NHA spoke about the primacy of care and human element by leveraging AI in healthcare. She stressed the need for using the local data sets in the development of the AI models.

The programme also featured a panel discussion on “Building AI for Indian Healthcare”, chaired by Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The panel brought together representatives from government, healthcare technology companies, academia and the AI ecosystem to deliberate on operational pathways for adoption of AI solutions within India’s healthcare system.

Discussions focused on the role of Small Language Models (SLMs), Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal AI systems in addressing diverse healthcare use cases, particularly in low resource and local language settings. Panellists also highlighted the importance of workflow integration, validation frameworks, quality datasets, edge deployment, privacy safeguards and scalable implementation pathways for AI solutions in healthcare delivery.

The programme concluded with an interaction with Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCPs).

The showcase will continue on 9 May 2026 with panel discussions on “Future of Claims Adjudication” and “Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the Era of AI — Challenges and Opportunities”, followed by rewards and recognition of hackathon winners. Session-wise details of the second day may be accessed at: https://nha.gov.in/ip/Draft_Hackathon_Program_Agenda05.05.2026.pdf

The proceedings of the AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026 were streamed live on the official YouTube channel of the National Health Authority and can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/@AyushmanNHA

 The Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) ecosystem is transforming digital health in India, processing around 50,000 claims daily across 1,900+ packages. The AB PMJAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon aims to drive innovative digital solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing AB-PMJAY infrastructure, reduce manual effort, speed up processing, and build a scalable, future-ready adjudication framework for the entire ecosystem.

Through this initiative, the National Health Authority reaffirms its commitment to harnessing responsible Artificial Intelligence to strengthen health systems, improve efficiency in claims management and support transparent and technology-driven healthcare delivery under AB PM-JAY.

 

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