Under this Act, healthcare identifiers are assigned to healthcare recipients, individual healthcare providers and healthcare provider organisations.

There are strict rules on:

  (a)   the verification of a person's identity before a healthcare identifier is assigned; and

  (b)   the purposes for which a healthcare identifier can be collected, used and disclosed; and

  (c)   the purposes for which the identifying information of a healthcare recipient, a healthcare provider or a healthcare provider organisation can be collected, used and disclosed.

This Act facilitates the use of the healthcare identifier for the purposes of communicating and managing health information about a healthcare recipient (including through the My Health Record system).

This Act also facilitates:

  (a)   the creation of a Healthcare Provider Directory, to allow healthcare providers to check the professional and business details of healthcare providers; and

  (b)   the use of authenticated electronic communications by healthcare providers.