HI Service

Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI)

All patients have been allocated an IHI by Medicare. A patient can obtain their IHI by contacting Medicare.
IHI numbers can be entered into a patient's Biographics.
A manually entered IHI is validated with Medicare automatically when you move your cursor out of the IHI Number field. Alternatively, click Validate.
If the IHI cannot be validated, it will not be available for use within Communicare.
To view a patient's IHI validation history, click History.
When you save a patient's biographics, Communicare attempts to search for the patient's IHI if one has not been entered.
For a search to be attempted, the following patient information must be recorded:
- Given name (forename)
- Family name
- Sex
- Date of birth
- Medicare number

Healthcare Provider Identifier - Individual (HPI-I)

All providers have been allocated an HPI-I by Medicare. A provider can obtain their HPI-I by logging into the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) website (http://www.ahpra.gov.au/).
HPI-I numbers can be entered against a Provider or an Address Book Entry.
A manually entered HPI-I will be validated with Medicare automatically when you move out of the HPI-I Number field. Alternatively, click Validate.
If the HPI-I cannot be validated, it will not be available for use within Communicare.
To view a provider's HPI-I history, click History.
When you save a Provider or Address Book entry details, Communicare attempts to search for the HPI-I if one has not been entered.
For a search to be attempted for the HPI-I, the following information must be included in either the provider's record or the provider's entry in the address book:
- In File > Providers, Provider window, the provider's registration number and family name need to have been recorded in the 'Registration Number' and 'Surname' fields.
- In File > Address Book Maintenance, Address Book Entry window, the provider's given name and family name need to have been recorded in the 'Forenames' and 'Surname' fields.

Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation (HPI-O)

Your organisation needs to apply to Medicare to obtain an HPI-O.
HPI-O numbers can be entered against an Encounter Place, Organisation or an Address Book Entry.
A manually entered HPI-O will be validated with Medicare automatically when you move off the HPO-I fieldAlternatively, click Validate.
If the HPI-O cannot be validated, it will not be available for use within Communicare.
To view an Encounter Place, Organisation or Address Book Entry's HPI-O history, click History.
When you save an Encounter Place, Organisation or an Address Book Entry's details, Communicare will attempt to search for the HPI-O if one has not been entered.
For a search to be attempted the Organisation's or Address Book Entry's organisation name or the encounter places name need to have been completed.

Healthcare Identifier Statuses

Table 1. Healthcare Identifier status
Colour Code	Number Enabled Status
White	There is no healthcare identifier or it has been validated with Medicare (statuses should be visible below the box) and it is usable within Communicare.
Purple	The healthcare identifier has not been validated with Medicare due to user cancellation of the check, insufficient details to perform the check, or connection problems. Statuses will show as 'Unknown'. The healthcare identifier will not be usable elsewhere in Communicare until it has been validated.
Red	The healthcare identifier has been validated with Medicare (correct statuses will show below the box) however it has been disabled for use. A user prompt should explain the reason, most likely it is due to being a duplicate of another healthcare identifier record. Such a situation must be manually resolved by correcting details.

Healthcare Identifier Checks

When the module performs a Search or Validation you will see one of two working windows pop-up to indicate that a Medicare check is taking place. If time is critical, you may click 'Cancel', however it is better to let the Healthcare Identifier check complete successfully. The wait time is normally under four seconds. In either case the Healthcare Identifier check may be followed by a message that describes the outcome.

Searching patient IHI with Medicare - displayed when saving a patient, provider, encounter place, organisation or address book entry without a Healthcare Identifier, if sufficient details are available.
Validating patient IHI with Medicare - displayed in the following circumstances:
- When a new healthcare identifier has been manually entered,
- A core patient, provider, encounter place, organisation or address book entry details with an existing Healthcare Identifier have been modified,
- Two patient records have been merged (with at least one IHI available for use)
- When you click Validate
- This window may also appear when:
  - A patient's My Health Record is accessed and the patient's IHI has not been validated in the IHI Revalidation Period.
  - You attempt to create a CDA document that contains healthcare identifiers that have not been validated in the past 24 hours.
  - You attempt to send a CDA document that contains healthcare identifiers that have not been validated in the past 24 hours.
  - You attempt to upload a CDA document to the My Health Record that contains healthcare identifiers that have not been validated in the past 24 hours.

Module Availability

For the HI service to be available you will need the following:

Internet access to access the Medicare's HI Service.
The HI Service URL. See System Parameters - Web Services.
A Medicare encryption certificate. See Organisation Parameters - Certificates.
A password for the certificate. See Organisation Parameters - Certificates.
The HI Service needs to be enabled in Communicare. See System Parameters - Web Services.
The Organisation will need to have a HPI-O. See Organisational Parameters - General.

This module is currently unavailable in Offline (Data Sync) Clients.

The Demo version of Communicare connects to the test HI Service. Searches and validation cannot be done on real patients, providers or organisations.

When Communicare starts, an automated process checks that the module is available. If for some reason Communicare cannot communicate with the HI Service, the module is disabled.

Module Configuration

The HI Service module configuration options can be found in System Parameters - Web Services, and may be set by a Communicare administrator or Communicare Support once a certificate has been issued for use with the service. See the aforementioned topic for details on how to obtain the certificate.

More Information

For more information on the Healthcare Identifiers Service see the Medicare website ( http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/health-identifier/index.jsp).