National Health Authority Concludes AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026 in Collaboration with IndiaAI Mission and IISc Bengaluru

The National Health Authority (NHA), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with the IndiaAI Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, today successfully concluded the AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026.

The concluding day of the two-day national showcase marked the recognition of winning teams across three critical problem statements aimed at enhancing speed, transparency, accuracy, and programme integrity in health claims adjudication under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

The hackathon witnessed enthusiastic participation from innovators, startups, students, researchers, and technology professionals from across the country. More than 3,500 participants registered, with solutions rigorously evaluated by an expert jury comprising representatives from government, academia, healthcare, and technology sectors. The top three teams under each problem statement were selected based on innovation, scalability, and real-world applicability within healthcare claims workflows.

Under the problem statement "Clinical Document Classification and Compliance with Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs)", Team Nirnaya, led by Vinay Babu Ulli, emerged as the winner for its AI-enabled solution for automated interpretation of healthcare claim documents and STG compliance assessment. The runner-up position was secured by Team Khushi Singh and Ronit from IIIT Gwalior for automated claims processing and document verification, while Team Vidal Health (Dr. Mukul Jain, Vijay Balaji, Aayush Derashree, Kartikeya Bhatnagar, Satvik Pathak, and Abhishek Sinha) secured the second runner-up position for its AI-based claims validation system.

Under "Radiological Image-Based Condition Detection and Report Correlation", Team BiltIQ AI, led by Harish Kumar, was declared the winner for its AI-driven radiology interpretation and report correlation solution. The runner-up position was secured by Team Kantaka Sodhana (Dr. Manohar Khandavalli, Lakshmi Narayana Cherukuri, Hambica Pedapudi, Bharath Varma Sangaraju, and Anudeep K) for solutions focused on automation and anomaly detection, while Team Arnold Sachith and Dr. Smitha Rao secured the second runner-up position for scalable AI solutions in healthcare systems.

Under "Document Forgery / Deepfake Detection", Team Sopa Claims, led by Praveen Sridhar and Snehal Joshi, emerged as the winner for its AI-based fraud detection solution. The runner-up position was secured by Team Forgensic from RGUKT-Nuzvid (Nikhileswara Rao Sulake, Sai Manikanta Eswar Machara, and Assistant Professor Shivlal Kethavath) for work in forensic AI and fraud detection, while Team Sushurutha Health AI (Bala Murali Krishna, Meghana Thota, and Sumanth Naidu Mathireddy) secured the second runner-up position for AI/ML-based insurance fraud detection solutions.

Winners under each problem statement were awarded cash prizes of ₹5 lakh, ₹3 lakh, and ₹2 lakh for the winner, runner-up, and second runner-up positions, respectively. The winning teams will also be considered for potential collaboration with the National Health Authority for further development and deployment of their solutions within the AB PM-JAY ecosystem.

The showcase also featured a high-level panel discussion on "Future of Claims Adjudication", where experts from government, insurers, TPAs, healthcare providers, academia, and the technology ecosystem deliberated on the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Public Infrastructure, and interoperable platforms. Discussions highlighted the growing importance of AI-assisted adjudication, automation, faster processing, transparency, auditability, clinical oversight, and scalable frameworks for public health insurance systems.

Another panel discussion on "Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the Era of AI - Challenges and Opportunities" examined emerging risks such as forged documents, identity misuse, deepfakes, and fraudulent claims practices. Experts emphasized the need for robust AI-enabled fraud detection systems, strong governance frameworks, data privacy safeguards, responsible AI deployment, and secure digital infrastructure to strengthen programme integrity and reduce leakages.

In addition to the hackathon showcase and panel discussions, two focused roundtable deliberations were convened to advance strategic collaboration within the digital health ecosystem. A "Roundtable with Large Hospitals for ABDM Enablement" brought together leading private and institutional hospital networks for a closed-door, solution-oriented dialogue with policymakers and the National Health Authority.

The deliberations highlighted the pivotal role of large hospitals in accelerating the adoption of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), which aims to build a national digital health ecosystem based on interoperable, patient-centric, and efficient healthcare delivery. Participants were apprised of ABDM's core building blocks-including ABHA, consent-based health record sharing, digital registries, and interoperable service and claims workflows-and engaged in detailed discussions on practical use-cases such as digital patient onboarding, continuity of care, and streamlined claims processing.

The roundtable also served as a platform to understand institutional perspectives on technology integration, operational readiness, implementation models, and capacity requirements, while addressing key concerns relating to data privacy, cybersecurity, governance, and return on investment. Emphasis was laid on reducing administrative inefficiencies, strengthening revenue cycle management through standardised data exchange, and improving patient experience across the care continuum. The discussions further focused on identifying policy interventions, partnership models, and incentive structures required to accelerate adoption, while collaboratively charting a phased roadmap for large-scale participation by leading hospital groups as anchor institutions in India's digital health transformation.

A second roundtable on "Foundation Models and Applications for Indian Health AI Ecosystem" convened representatives from the National Health Authority, the IndiaAI Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, academia, industry, and AI innovators to deliberate on national-scale development and deployment of healthcare AI solutions. Anchored in NHA's mandate of implementing AB PM-JAY and leading the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), and guided by the SAHI framework, the roundtable explored pathways for advancing India-specific AI foundation models and applications to improve care quality and health outcomes.

Discussions focused on identifying deployment-ready use cases in areas such as clinical decision support, public health analytics, and claims management, while also mapping gaps requiring further development. Participants deliberated on the need for indigenous datasets, shared benchmarks, and digital public infrastructure to enable scalable and interoperable AI adoption. Key themes included establishing robust validation and certification frameworks, defining evaluation metrics such as accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and turnaround time, and designing sustainable procurement and pricing models for AI-based solutions in government programmes.

The roundtable also emphasised interoperability standards, including APIs and FHIR, integration with ABDM, and the creation of a structured pipeline-from innovation and grant-stage development to validation, procurement, and large-scale deployment. The deliberations culminated in identifying priority actions for ecosystem building, including collaborative development of datasets, enabling infrastructure, and institutional mechanisms to support responsible, secure, and scalable adoption of AI across India's public health systems.

Through this initiative, the National Health Authority reaffirms its commitment to leveraging responsible Artificial Intelligence and Digital Public Infrastructure to strengthen healthcare delivery, enhance efficiency in claims management, and build transparent, technology-driven public health systems under AB PM-JAY.

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HFW- NHA Concludes AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026 /9^th May 2026/1