Could you confirm if Azure FHIR Server supports the _offset search param for Claim? If not, can it be enabled or planned?

Rahul Ranjan 20 Reputation points
2025-05-21T11:55:31.07+00:00

I’m using the Azure FHIR Server and trying to paginate through Claim resources using _count and _offset parameters. However, I’m getting a warning that _offset is not supported for the Claim resource.

I’ve seen that Azure FHIR Server does not support _offset by design and recommends using continuation tokens for pagination.

Could you please confirm if there is any way to enable _offset or if there are any plans to support it? If not, what is the best way to handle pagination for Claims on Azure FHIR Server?

Thanks for your help!

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-21T15:59:46.21+00:00

    @Rahul Ranjan ,

    You're correct — the Azure API for FHIR does not support the _offset search parameter, including for the Claim resource. This is by design. Instead, Azure FHIR Server uses continuation tokens to handle pagination. These tokens are returned in the Bundle.link with relation="next" when more results are available beyond the initial query.

    There’s currently no way to enable _offset, and as of now, there is no announcement to support it.

    Recommended Approach — Continuation Token Pagination:

    Initial Request: Use _count to define how many results you want per page (up to 1000).

    Token-based Pagination: If more data is available, the server responds with a link of relation="next" containing the continuation token.

    Subsequent Pages: Use the next URL directly for the next batch of results.

    Repeat until there is no next link.

    This method is preferred because it provides consistent results even in dynamic datasets, unlike offset-based methods which can miss or duplicate records if data changes between queries.

    Hope this helps. Do let us know if you have any further queries.


    If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for "Was this answer helpful." And if you have any further questions, let us know.

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