HFR Registration for Medical Store, Pharmacy and Lab (2026 Guide)

A medical store, pharmacy, pathology lab or diagnostic centre registers on the Health Facility Registry (HFR) the same way a hospital does: the owner or manager first creates a Healthcare Professional (HPR-based) login with Aadhaar OTP, takes the Facility Manager role, and registers the facility on the ABDM portal by choosing the facility type "Pharmacy", "Diagnostic Laboratory" or "Imaging Centre", filling in ownership, address and location, e-signing and submitting. The facility receives an HFR ID of the form IN0123456789 straight away and is marked verified once the district verifier approves it, which the verifier should decide within 30 days. Registration is free and is not mandatory nationally, but it is required to link reports and prescriptions to patients' ABHA records and to claim ABDM's Digital Health Incentive Scheme, for which labs and pharmacies need only Milestone 2 software.

This guide is for owners of medical stores, standalone and chain pharmacies, pathology labs, imaging centres and diagnostic chains, and for hospitals working out whether their in-house pharmacy and lab need their own HFR ID. It was checked against NHA's HFR SOP, the DHIS documents and the ABDM dashboard on 5 November 2026. For hospitals, see our HFR registration guide for hospitals.

Key takeaways

• Pharmacies and labs are their own facility types among the 34 types in HFR — Pharmacy, Diagnostic Laboratory, Imaging Centre, Blood Bank and others. Each HFR entry has exactly one type.
• No drug licence or NABL number is asked for in the HFR form; uploads such as building and signboard photos and address proof are optional and self-certified.
• HFR is voluntary nationally. NHA's SOP says HFR "is not mandated to regulate or set standards". Some states and schemes require it.
• Labs and pharmacies qualify for DHIS with M2 software, while hospitals need M3. Corrigendum 7 ran from April to September 2026; no extension had been announced by 5 November 2026.
• 6.09 lakh verified facilities were on HFR on 5 November 2026, of which 3.37 lakh were private.

Which facility type should you choose?

A subtype is mandatory. If one business runs both a lab and a pharmacy at different premises, register each as its own facility.

Step-by-step HFR registration for a pharmacy or lab

1. Create your login. On the ABDM facility and professional portal (facility.abdm.gov.in and hpr.abdm.gov.in now open nhpr.abdm.gov.in), create a Healthcare Professional ID with Aadhaar OTP, choose a user ID, and add your email and a password. Pharmacists who already have an HPR profile through PCI's DIGI-PHARMed should use that one — see HPR for pharmacists.
2. Take the Facility Manager role and choose "Register a new facility".
3. Check for duplicates. The portal flags facilities with similar names nearby; if yours is already listed, claim it rather than creating a second entry.
4. Fill in the mandatory fields: facility name exactly as on your licence, ownership (government, private or public-private partnership), system of medicine, facility type and subtype, address, PIN code and geo-location pinned on the map.
5. Add optional details and uploads: timings, services, contact numbers, a photo of the building and signboard, and address proof.
6. E-sign and submit. Your HFR ID is generated on submission and the facility appears in the public search.
7. Verification. A district verifier (state verifier for some government facilities) reviews the entry and should decide within 30 days, raising a query rather than rejecting where something is unclear. Once approved, the facility shows as verified.

NHA's own guidance estimates 20–30 minutes for the application when documents are ready. A Gurugram pharmacy cited in a government backgrounder in July 2026 completed its ABDM registration in about two hours.

What to keep ready

• Aadhaar with linked mobile number for the owner or manager.
• Exact facility name and address as on your drug licence or establishment registration.
• Ownership type, timings, services and contact details.
• Two photographs — the building and the signboard.
• Address proof (optional in the form, but it helps verification).

Your HFR ID: format, search and certificate

• Format: NHA's SOP describes the HFR ID as a 12-character alphanumeric ID, for example IN0123456789.
• Search: anyone can look up a facility on the ABDM facility search (nhpr.abdm.gov.in → search facility) by state, district and name.
• Certificate: NHA's SOP and FAQs do not describe a certificate. Facility managers report downloading facility details from the facility card after verification; if you need proof of registration for a scheme or insurer, use the verified listing and your HFR ID.

Is HFR registration mandatory for a medical store or lab?

Not nationally. NHA's HFR SOP says the registry "is not mandated to regulate or set standards", and we found no central or state drug-control order in 2025–2026 making HFR compulsory for medical stores, nor one for private labs. But it is required or expected in specific situations:

• Government facilities: a Health Ministry letter of November 2021 told all central government facilities, including labs, pharmacies and radiology centres, to register.
• Some states have linked HFR to their own licensing — NHA has cited Sikkim (licence renewal conditional on HFR) and Puducherry and Arunachal Pradesh (registration through the Clinical Establishments Act).
• Schemes and incentives: HFR is the entry point for ABDM software linkage and for DHIS, and is required for PM-JAY empanelment of hospitals in state guidelines.
• Pharmacists themselves now need HPR profiles through DIGI-PHARMed, which makes HFR the natural next step for the store they run.

In-house pharmacies and labs in a hospital

NHA has not published a rule on this, so the answer depends on what the unit needs to do. Each HFR entry has one facility type, and DHIS requires a lab to be registered as "Diagnostic Laboratory" or "Imaging Centre" to claim as a lab. Our reading:

• If the pharmacy and lab serve the hospital's own patients and their records are linked through the hospital's software, the hospital's HFR ID is enough — records are shared under the hospital as the health information provider.
• If the pharmacy or lab sells to walk-in customers under its own licence, runs separate software, or wants to claim DHIS in its own name, register it as its own facility.

In Healthixio, prescriptions, lab reports and pharmacy bills of the hospital's patients are linked to their ABHA under the hospital's HFR ID, so a hospital does not need separate entries for its in-house lab and pharmacy to share those records.

After registration: linking your software

An HFR ID does nothing on its own. To share records with ABHA, the facility links ABDM-enabled software: in the facility card, open Software Linkage, enter the software's bridge ID given by your vendor, and register the facility as a Health Information Provider (HIP). After that, the software can link diagnostic reports, prescriptions and dispensing or invoice records to the patient's ABHA. Check that your vendor is certified for production, not just the sandbox.

DHIS incentives for labs and pharmacies

The Digital Health Incentive Scheme pays facilities for records linked to KYC-verified ABHA numbers. Under Corrigendum 7 (9 April 2026, effective April to September 2026):

• Eligibility: all health facilities including labs and pharmacies; for a diagnostic facility, lab or pharmacy, transactions on software integrated up to Milestone 2 (HIP) count, while hospitals need Milestone 3.
• Rates above the first 100 records a month: ₹10 per diagnostic report or discharge summary, ₹5 per other record such as a prescription or invoice. The first 100 are deducted, lowest value first.
• Example from NHA: a lab linking 500 KYC-verified reports in a month earns ₹4,000 — (500 − 100) × ₹10.
• Limits: one transaction per ABHA per day and five per month at a facility; back-claims up to three months; facility cap ₹5 crore; software must be on ABDM's v3 APIs from July 2026.
• Registering for DHIS: from the facility's HFR profile, with bank details, a cancelled cheque, PAN and a mandate or undertaking form.

Uptake by labs and pharmacies is still small. On 5 November 2026 the ABDM dashboard showed 505 diagnostic facilities registered for DHIS against 29,786 hospitals, and 129 diagnostics, labs and pharmacies paid so far. A July 2026 government backgrounder put payments to diagnostics, labs and pharmacies at ₹2.95 crore against more than ₹107 crore to hospitals. The ABDM website still listed Corrigendum 7 (April–September 2026) on 5 November 2026 with no extension announced, so check before you count on it. Our DHIS guide has the full rules.

Common mistakes

• Name mismatch between HFR and the drug licence or lab registration.
• Wrong facility type — a lab registered under any type other than Diagnostic Laboratory or Imaging Centre cannot claim DHIS as a lab.
• Duplicate entries created instead of claiming an existing listing.
• Pin dropped on the locality, not the shop.
• Stopping at HFR, without software linkage, so no record ever reaches ABHA.

Lab and pharmacy software that uses your HFR ID

Hospitals: Healthixio runs the hospital's pathology lab and pharmacy on the same patient record, and links lab reports, prescriptions and pharmacy bills to ABHA under the hospital's HFR ID, with ABHA creation by Aadhaar OTP or fingerprint at the counter. See the pathology and pharmacy modules.

Standalone labs: Pathixio, Kentron's lab software at lab.healthixio.com, supports ABHA creation at the lab counter and linking lab reports to the patient's ABHA. See also our guide to NABL accreditation for pathology labs.

Frequently Asked Questions

HFR ID kya hai? (What is an HFR ID?)

An HFR ID is the unique identifier a health facility gets on ABDM's Health Facility Registry — a 12-character ID such as IN0123456789. It identifies the hospital, pharmacy, lab or imaging centre in the ABDM network and is needed to link records to patients' ABHA.

Is HFR registration mandatory for a medical store?

Not nationally as of November 2026, and we found no central or state drug-control order requiring it. Some states and schemes require HFR, and it is needed for ABDM linking and DHIS incentives.

Is a drug licence needed for HFR registration?

The HFR form does not ask for a drug licence number. But the facility name and address should match your licence, and verifiers may query mismatches.

How long does HFR verification take?

NHA's SOP asks verifiers to decide within 30 days. Clean applications are often verified faster; queries add time.

How do I search for an HFR ID?

Use the public facility search on the ABDM portal (nhpr.abdm.gov.in), selecting state and district and searching by facility name.

Does a hospital's in-house lab or pharmacy need a separate HFR ID?

Not if its records are linked through the hospital's software under the hospital's HFR ID. Register it separately if it sells under its own licence to outside customers, runs separate software, or wants to claim DHIS in its own name.

How much can a lab earn from DHIS?

Under Corrigendum 7, ₹10 for each KYC-verified diagnostic report linked above the first 100 a month — ₹4,000 for 500 reports. Corrigendum 7 covered April–September 2026; check abdm.gov.in for any extension.

Which ABDM milestone does lab or pharmacy software need?

Milestone 2 (linking records as a Health Information Provider) is enough for labs and pharmacies to count for DHIS. Hospitals need Milestone 3.

Register once, then let the software do the linking

Get the HFR ID, link it to ABDM-enabled software, and every report and bill can reach the patient's ABHA without extra work. Hospitals: book a demo of Healthixio. Labs: see Pathixio.

Sources

• NHA, HFR SOP for verifiers (facility types, HFR ID format, verification): abdm.gov.in
• NHA, HFR Pathways (software linkage, state levers): abdm.gov.in
• Digital Health Incentive Scheme page and FAQs: abdm.gov.in
• DHIS Corrigendum 7 (text circulated by Rajasthan NHM, 5 May 2026): rajswasthya.rajasthan.gov.in
• ABDM public dashboard, HFR and DHIS figures (5 November 2026): dashboard.abdm.gov.in
• PIB backgrounder on ABDM, July 2026: pib.gov.in

Last reviewed 5 November 2026. Check abdm.gov.in for the current DHIS corrigendum.