Healthcare Identifier Service

Healthcare Identifier Service Overview

The Healthcare Identifiers Service is a consistent set of identifiers for individuals and healthcare providers. It allows us to know who care was provided to, who provided the care, and where the care was provided.

There are three types of identifiers:

• Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI)

• Healthcare Provider Identifier - Individual (HPI-I)

• Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O)

Individual Healthcare Identifier - the person who received care. IHI’s are assigned to every person enrolled in Medicare or registered with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Healthcare Provider Identifier – Individual - the person who provided the care. HPI-I’s are assigned to providers, GPs, allied health professionals, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists.

Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation - the organisation where the care was provided. HPI-O’s are assigned to organisations such as hospitals or general practices. Sole practitioners can also apply for an HPI-O.

Benefits of the Healthcare Identifier Service:

• access to the My Health Record • in time validation of Provider and Organisation registration • access to Electronic Prescribing • access to interoperable secure messaging

Structure

To access the HI Service, an organisation needs to have its own unique HPI-O. Once an HPI-O is obtained, your organisation will automatically be registered for the My Health Record system as well.

Before you register, carefully read the information below to get a better understanding of the organisational structure and individual roles.

Organisations can belong to one of two categories:

• Seed

• Network

Seed