About Medicare's Health Identifier 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.
All Australians will be provided with a unique identifier called an IHI (Individual Healthcare Identifier) when seeking medical services.
Healthcare Provider Individuals like GPs, Specialists, and allied health professionals such as optometrist, speech therapists and social workers will be provided with an HPI-I (Healthcare Provider Identifier-Individual).
Healthcare Provider Organisations like state health departments, hospitals, medical practices, pathology or radiology laboratories and pharmacies will be provided with an HPI-O (Healthcare Provider Identifier- Organisation).
IHIs 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
Configuring Pracsoft for HI Service
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Each registered practice must apply for an HPI-O (Healthcare Provider Identifier- Organisation) number, which must be entered in the associated field on the Practice tab of Pracsoft's Practice Details. Medicare Australia can also issue you with a Signing Certificate and Encryption Certificate, which must be imported via the PKI tab of Clinical Options. |
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Each registered practitioner must apply for an HPI-I (Healthcare Provider Identifier- Individual) number, which must be entered in the associated field within the Practitioner's details. |
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Each registered patient is provided with an IHI (Individual Healthcare Identifier) number, which is entered automatically in the associated field on the Patient Details tab of the patient's demographic information. |
Changes to Pracsoft
A new IHI Search tab has been added to Pracsoft's Global Settings, which provides a facility for importing your Practice's HI Service Signing Certificate and Encryption Certificate.
The Practice tab within Pracsoft's Practice Details window now includes a field for recording your Practice's HPI-O number.
The Practitioner Details window now includes a field for recording your Practitioner's HPI-I number.
The Patient Details tab now displays the patient's IHI number.
A 
button has been added to the Patient's record for viewing their IHI allocation history.
A 
button has been added to the Patient's record for live validation of their IHI number.
An IHI Exception Report is available, which allows you to see which patients may share the same IHI Number.