Public Health Research India
India's public health system — Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, NHM, CGHS, state health missions, and the expanding network of Ayushman Arogya Mandirs — is both the largest healthcare programme in the world and the most under-researched. Official data is incomplete, delayed, and rarely disaggregated to the level of granularity that operators, policymakers, or development partners need.
InsightRx conducts primary research that fills the gap — beneficiary surveys, provider interviews, facility audits, and community health worker studies — across five service areas: government scheme intelligence, public hospital research, NHM programme effectiveness, digital health and ABDM readiness, and public-private partnership mapping.
Why Primary Research — Not Secondary Data — Defines the Public Health Intelligence Gap
India's public health data ecosystem is large but unreliable at the level of granularity that decisions require. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) covers 99%+ of public facilities — but HMIS data is self-reported, inconsistently validated, and rarely disaggregated below the district level. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) provides population-level benchmarks — but NFHS rounds are five years apart, and the data is too aggregated for programme-level decisions.
The consequence is a persistent intelligence gap: policymakers, programme managers, development partners, and private operators all make decisions with data that is either too old, too aggregated, or too unreliable to support the specificity their decisions require.
InsightRx fills this gap with primary research — surveys, interviews, facility audits, mystery patient studies, and community health worker assessments — conducted at the district and block level, in local languages, with a methodology designed for the Indian public health context rather than adapted from global templates.
The distinction between primary and secondary research is not academic. A PM-JAY utilisation study based on NHA claims data tells you how many hospitalisations were authorised. A primary study tells you why beneficiaries in Bihar under-use the scheme relative to Karnataka — and what corrective action is feasible. The second question is the one that matters.
Why InsightRx — Not a Global Firm
India-specialist, not India-adapted
Global firms like IQVIA, Nielsen, and Ipsos approach Indian healthcare through a pharma-commercial or FMCG lens. Their India public health capability is thin, their primary research networks are urban-skewed, and their deliverables are designed for global clients. InsightRx is built for the Indian public health context — NHM, PM-JAY, ABDM, ASHA/ANM networks, district hospital architecture.
Primary research, not secondary synthesis
Market data aggregators (Mordor Intelligence, Grand View Research, IMARC) sell pre-packaged reports built from secondary sources. InsightRx commissions every study from scratch — beneficiary surveys, provider interviews, facility audits — designed around your specific research question, not a generic market sizing template.
District-level granularity, not state averages
The public health intelligence gap is not at the national or state level — it is at the district and block level, where programme delivery succeeds or fails. InsightRx conducts fieldwork at this level, in local languages, with a research network that covers geographies most global firms cannot reach.
Government Scheme Intelligence
PM-JAY utilisation, state scheme uptake, and the gap between policy intent and ground-level delivery.
Clients We Serve
India's government health schemes — Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, state-level Mukhyamantri schemes, CGHS, ECHS, and the expanding AB-HWC network — represent the largest single shift in Indian healthcare demand in a generation. But scheme data alone does not answer the questions that matter: Why is utilisation uneven across states? Why do beneficiaries in Bihar and UP under-use PM-JAY relative to Karnataka and Chhattisgarh? What drives claim denials? What do beneficiaries actually know about their entitlements? InsightRx conducts primary research that answers these questions — at the district level, in the language of the beneficiary, with findings that are actionable rather than merely descriptive.
PM-JAY utilisation is highly uneven across states — not because of beneficiary ineligibility, but because of awareness gaps, empanelment churn, and claim denial patterns that primary research can map and explain.
Public Hospital & Infrastructure Research
District hospital utilisation, PHC/CHC patient flow, and the public-to-private referral chain.
Clients We Serve
India's public hospital network — 800+ district hospitals, 5,600+ Community Health Centres, 25,000+ Primary Health Centres — is the first point of contact for the majority of India's population. But utilisation data from government sources is incomplete, delayed, and rarely disaggregated to the level of granularity that operators, policymakers, or development partners need. InsightRx conducts facility-level primary research — patient exit interviews, provider surveys, mystery patient studies, and community health worker assessments — that fills the gap between official statistics and ground-level reality.
The referral chain from PHC to CHC to district hospital is poorly mapped in most geographies — and the leakage points are where both public health failure and private sector opportunity concentrate.
NHM Programme Effectiveness Research
Maternal and child health, immunisation, NCD programmes, and community health worker studies.
Clients We Serve
The National Health Mission funds India's most critical public health programmes — maternal and child health, immunisation, tuberculosis control, NCD screening, and the ASHA/ANM community health worker network. Programme effectiveness research is the evidence base that determines whether these programmes are working, where they are failing, and what corrective action is needed. InsightRx conducts this research for state health departments, development partners, and bilateral agencies — with a methodology that prioritises primary data collection over secondary source synthesis.
Immunisation coverage data from HMIS and NFHS diverges significantly at the district level — the gap is where hesitancy, cold chain failure, and ASHA workload intersect. Primary research maps which factor dominates in each geography.
Digital Health & ABDM Research
ABHA adoption, HFR compliance, and the gap between digital health policy and ground-level readiness.
Clients We Serve
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is building the foundational data infrastructure for a unified health ecosystem — ABHA IDs, Health Facility Registry, Healthcare Professionals Registry, and a consent-based health records exchange. As of mid-2026, over 67 crore ABHA IDs have been created, but active usage and linked health records remain a fraction of that number. ABDM readiness is now a material factor in hospital, diagnostic chain, and health-tech platform strategy. InsightRx assesses ABDM adoption readiness, staff training gaps, patient awareness, and facility compliance across the public and private sectors.
67 crore ABHA IDs created, but active usage is a fraction of that number. The gap between ID creation and meaningful digital health engagement is the research question that determines whether ABDM succeeds.
Public-Private Partnership Intelligence
PPP opportunity mapping, empanelment economics, and private sector entry under government schemes.
Clients We Serve
India's public health system increasingly relies on private sector participation — through PM-JAY empanelment, PPP hospital management contracts, diagnostic PPPs, and outsourced services. For private operators, the question is not whether to engage with the public sector, but how to do so profitably and sustainably. InsightRx maps the PPP landscape at the state and district level — identifying which geographies have viable empanelment economics, which PPP models have demonstrated sustainability, and where the next wave of public-private collaboration is likely to emerge.
PM-JAY package rates — revised in 2023 but still contested by providers — determine whether empanelment is financially viable at scale. The viability calculation differs by state, specialty, and facility type. InsightRx models it explicitly.
The Public-Private Interface: Where Research Matters Most
India's public health system does not operate in isolation from the private sector. Approximately 60% of PM-JAY hospitalisations occur in private empanelled facilities. PPP hospital management contracts cover hundreds of district hospitals across states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. Diagnostic PPPs operate across the NHM network. And ABDM is designed to create a data exchange layer that connects public and private facilities into a single health ecosystem.
For private operators, the public-private interface is both an opportunity and a compliance challenge. The opportunity is access to government-funded demand — a patient base that was previously inaccessible to private providers. The challenge is navigating package rate constraints, empanelment requirements, and ABDM mandates while maintaining financial viability.
InsightRx maps the interface at the state and district level — identifying which geographies have viable empanelment economics, which PPP models have demonstrated sustainability, and where the next wave of public-private collaboration is likely to emerge. Our research is used by private hospital chains assessing PM-JAY empanelment, PE-backed platforms evaluating PPP opportunities, and development finance institutions assessing the private sector's role in public health delivery.
The public-private interface is also where the most important policy questions in Indian healthcare are being resolved — whether PM-JAY can sustain private sector participation at scale, whether ABDM can create a genuinely interoperable health data ecosystem, and whether the HWC programme can deliver comprehensive primary care at the community level. These are research questions, not just policy questions.
The InsightRx View on Public Health Research
"India's public health data problem is not a shortage of data — it is a shortage of the right data at the right level of granularity."
HMIS covers 99%+ of public facilities. NFHS provides population-level benchmarks. The National Health Authority publishes PM-JAY claims data. None of these answer the questions that matter for programme design, private sector entry, or development partner investment: Why is PM-JAY utilisation low in Bihar? Why do beneficiaries in Rajasthan prefer private facilities over empanelled public hospitals? Why is HWC utilisation for NCD screening a fraction of its potential? These are primary research questions — and they are the questions InsightRx is built to answer.
Related Research & Intelligence
Public Healthcare India 2026
InsightRx analysis of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, NHM, ABDM, and the public-private interface — the intelligence context for every public health study we conduct.
Read the analysisHealthcare Sector India 2026
The macro context for public health research — hospital bed density, insurance penetration, PE activity, and the structural forces reshaping Indian healthcare.
Read the reportHospital Market Research India
For private operators assessing PM-JAY empanelment or PPP opportunities — our hospital market research practice covers feasibility, competitive intelligence, and referral corridor mapping.
Explore the practiceFrequently Asked Questions
Public health research in India covers the study of government health schemes (Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, NHM, CGHS, state schemes), public hospital infrastructure (district hospitals, PHCs, CHCs, HWCs), programme effectiveness (maternal and child health, immunisation, TB, NCD), digital health adoption (ABDM, ABHA, eSanjeevani), and the public-private interface (PPP models, empanelment economics). InsightRx conducts primary research — surveys, interviews, facility audits, mystery patient studies — rather than secondary source synthesis. The distinction matters: official data is incomplete, delayed, and rarely disaggregated to the level of granularity that operators, policymakers, or development partners need.
Commission a Public Health Research Study
Tell us your research question — PM-JAY utilisation in a specific state, HWC adoption in a district cluster, ABDM readiness for your facility network, or PPP opportunity mapping. We respond within 24 hours with a scoping call.
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