About the Healthcare Identifiers Service

The Federal, state and territory governments have developed a national Healthcare Identifiers (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.

The HI Service allocates 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 that deliver healthcare (such as  hospitals and medical practices).Your healthcare identifier has been created to be used by healthcare providers to improve the security and efficient management of your personal health information.

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 affect the way medical benefits are claimed.

Healthcare Identifiers are an important building block to enable the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system.

Under the Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010, an IHI can be allocated to you and used by a healthcare provider without your consent. There are strict privacy laws governing how these identifiers are used.

You can view your IHI history online by registering for Medicare Australia's Online Services.