Medicare Healthcare Identifiers Service

The federal, state and territory governments have developed a national Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service) which uniquely identifies 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.

• 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).

  Healthcare Identifiers have been created to be used by healthcare providers to improve the security and efficient management of an individual's personal health information with strict privacy laws governing how these numbers are used. IHIs do not replace Medicare or DVA numbers and do not affect the way medical benefits are claimed. For more information, see http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/health-identifier/index.jsp