Healthcare Identifiers Service
About the Healthcare Identifiers Service
The Federal, state and territory governments have developed a national Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service) which will uniquely identify healthcare providers and individuals who seek healthcare. Medicare Australia is the operator of the HI Service.
The HI Service will give individuals and healthcare providers confidence that the right health information is associated with the right individual at the point of care.
There are three types of Healthcare Identifiers:
- Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI)—allocated to all individuals enrolled in the Medicare program or those who are issued with a Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) treatment card and others who seek healthcare in Australia.
- Healthcare Provider Identifier – Individual (HPI-I)—allocated to healthcare providers involved in providing patient care.
- Healthcare Provider Identifier – Organisation (HPI-O)—allocated to organisations (such as a hospital or medical clinic) where healthcare is provided.
Your healthcare identifier has been created to be used by healthcare providers to improve the security and efficient management of your personal health information.
Medicare Australia is authorised by law to allocate IHIs to individuals and to disclose IHIs to healthcare providers without your consent. However, strict privacy laws govern how these identifiers can be used.
A healthcare identifier is not a health record. The information held by the HI Service is limited to demographic information (such as your name, date of birth and sex) which is needed to uniquely identify you and your healthcare providers. Healthcare identifiers do not replace Medicare or DVA numbers and do not effect the way medical benefits are claimed.
Healthcare identifiers are an important building block to enable the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) system. The PCEHR system, which is is expected to be available from mid 2012, will use healthcare identifiers as a way to make sure your information is attached to the right record.
You can view your IHI history online by registering for Medicare Australia's Online Services. If you have already registered for our Online Services, simply logon to our website to look up your IHI history.
Healthcare Identifiers Service 2010-11 Annual Report
Under the Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010, the HI Service Operator is required to provide a report on the first year of operations to the Minister for Health and Ageing. You can find details on the assignment and management of healthcare identifiers, the service levels under which we operate, financial statements and more in this report.
Forms
To be used to register an individual for the Healthcare Identifiers Service or to update an existing record.
To be used to request a pseudonym Individual Healthcare Identifier.
- Pseudonym Individual Healthcare Identifier Factsheet [PDF, 513Kb]
- Application to request a pseudonym Individual Healthcare Identifier record [PDF, 103Kb]
For more information
- Healthcare Identifiers Service brochure [PDF, 331Kb]
- Call 1300 361 457.
- Email healthcareidentifiers@medicareaustralia.gov.au
- For a history of the development of the HI Service and the consultation process visit the Department of Health and Ageing
website. - For information about eHealth, including frequently asked questions about the HI Service visit the ehealth website.
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Last updated: 26 October, 2011