Site Changes

On 1 November 2010 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was integrated into the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and a new website established at www.oaic.gov.au.

Note 1: Major changes to the Privacy Act 1988 will come into effect in March 2014. Agencies, businesses and not for profits need to start preparing for these changes. For more information go to our privacy law reform page at www.oaic.gov.au
Note 2: From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date. For new privacy content visit the www.oaic.gov.au website.

Can private sector health service providers use the Medicare number (or other Commonwealth government-assigned identifiers, such as the DVA number) for their own purposes, including for managing their clients` health records?

No - under NPP7, the Medicare number and other Commonwealth identifiers (eg. the Department of Veterans' Affairs and Health Care Card numbers) should only be used by private sector health service providers to fulfil their obligations to the agency that assigned the number.

Ordinarily, in a health sector context, these numbers must only be collected when providing care to a client ï¿½ where the use of the number relates to the authorisation and financing of the care episode by the relevant government agency. Once collected, the number must only be used or disclosed to fulfil the health service providerï¿½s obligations to the relevant agency (ie. the agency that assigned the number).

More information on NPP7 and the health sector can be found in the Guidelines on Privacy in the Private Health Sector.

The limitations imposed by NPP7 do not apply to identifiers issued by State or Territory government agencies, or to identifiers created and used in the private sector by individual practitioners and health services.