Health Connect Australia – FAQs

FAQs - Health Connect Australia Provider Directory FHIR IG (the Provider Directory FHIR IG)

Can organisations create their own FHIR resource extensions for supporting private sector vendor service interactions?

The Provider Directory FHIR IG has been designed for the purpose of supporting the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory project requirements. The FHIR IG does not prohibit implementation outside of HCA and the profiles themselves do not prohibit additional extensions. Initially, we will not consider additional extensions, but nothing we are doing would prevent us from supporting this in future, if a decision is made to pursue that.

Are stakeholders able to implement their own directory service based on the published IG specifications?

The Provider Directory FHIR IG is unencumbered and implementers who see value in adopting it for their own directory services are welcome do so. That said, it should be noted that at this time the Agency cannot guarantee that new requirements and/or change requests from outside the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory’s needs can be accommodated; and nor can the Agency guarantee that breaking (non-backward compatible) changes will not arise in future versions of the Provider Directory FHIR IG.

The key attribute of data quality is impacted by technical and non-technical factors.

There is a focus on the technical, but should there be more detail about how it's expected to improve data quality? Consider making assumptions in descriptions explicit so stakeholders can get a fuller perspective of the tasks and success factors to realise the stated objectives.

Data quality is a strategic objective because accurate, complete, and timely information is essential for safe clinical decisions, efficient workflows, and trusted digital health services. Without reliable data, interoperability and innovation cannot deliver their intended benefits. Improving data quality requires both technical and non-technical measures such as:

• Technical: Standards such as FHIR Implementation Guides enforce consistent data structures, mandatory fields, and terminology bindings, supported by automated validation and conformance testing. These reduce ambiguity and errors in data exchange.
• Non-technical: Success depends on provider compliance, timely updates to source systems, strong governance and accountability, education and cultural change, and monitoring through audits and feedback loops.

What use cases have been envisaged in the design of this directory? 

There is a perception that various directories are being/have been developed to meet only particular use cases.

The key use case being addressed by the FHIR IG is to provide a standards-based API for the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory which aims to provide a single access point to comprehensive information about healthcare providers and healthcare organisations that exists across multiple directories and source systems today.

What is the position on responsibility and liability for the currency of directory data?

Responsibility for data currency primarily rests with providers and source authorities. The directory will implement safeguards to minimise risk, including:

• Regular synchronisation with source systems.
• Displaying the date and time of the last update.
• Integration with PCA.
• Audit processes.

While these measures enhance accuracy, no directory can guarantee 100% currency. Liability for incorrect or outdated information remains with the providers and source authorities that supply the data, not with the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory.

Future policy may require providers to maintain certain information in the directory as part of participation requirements or access to digital health capabilities. Consultation will inform these developments.

Will the authorisation service APIs and access control requirements for providers be published in the IG or separately? 

How will a verified provider be authorised to access the PD?

The IG will likely outline the requirement for the requestor to obtain an access token from the Health Connect Authorisation Service. Full detail of what will be included in this IG regarding Authorisation is still to be confirmed, but we note this information needs to be made available to implementers.

Will there be any co-relations in the Health Provider Directory and the Online Test Catalogue (Pathology Tests)? 

To support consumers with making the decision, I want to find a health provider who can perform a specified test/panel etc.

This capability is not included in Release 1. However, it may be considered in future releases to support eRequesting and enhance consumer and provider decision making. We recognise the value of helping consumers and providers find services based on specific tests, and this will inform our roadmap discussions.

Is the authorisation method standards aligned with SMART on FHIR backend since for a FHIR server?

Whilst the solution does use OAuth with Access Tokens and scopes, it does not align to the SMART on FHIR backend services specification in that it does not pre-authorise clients and does not expose its connection metadata using a “well-known/smart configuration”.

What about Primary Care (is that what you referred to as "privates")? 

There was no mention of Primary Care providers. It seemed the national service was being targeted at the hospital sector.

The directory is designed to take a broad view of the health sector, not just hospitals. It aims to capture all healthcare organisations and providers, including those in primary care, acute care, aged care, community, allied health, and specialist practices.

Are there SLAs for real-time use?

Yes. SLAs are defined under the project’s Non-Functional Requirements (NFR).

Will Provider Connect become a source of the truth for all Provider details by location? 

Legacy systems generate billing errors particularly when the wrong provider by location is chosen. This particularly occurs when a provider services several locations yet uses an individual provider number. Legacy systems often don’t display the complete information that allows a user to make the right choice. 

We download information from Medicare via a batch process and manually reconcile information within the respective systems. We have advanced building an eRequesting solution built on the FHIR AU core standard including a specimen collection process. Can we consider automation and timeliness of the provider process, inclusive of copy to reporting?

Like the future My Health Record we are using the Smile Digital Health Repository and Iris for Health at the Integration Layer. Currently I have two integration analysts undertaking the necessary work including HL7™ 2.3.1 to/from FHIR and the other building FHIR to/from GP Practice Management solutions.

Consider real time integration to/from Provider Connect and eventually other systems, registries to drive the adoption of true person-centred care and better evidence-based practice.

The Health Connect Australia Provider Directory is a national directory designed to support discoverability of comprehensive information about healthcare providers and services, including but not limited to their communication endpoints, Medicare provider numbers and locations. It builds on the healthcare identifier infrastructure/Data (HPI-O’s and HPI-I’s) and introduces capabilities such as:

• Rich data attributes for services and practitioners (e.g., service types, languages spoken, communication preferences).
• Metadata about providers and services (e.g. record creation date, update history).
• Interoperability through FHIR for easier integration with clinical and administrative systems.
• Future flexibility to include broader provider types as policy evolves.

The Health Connect Australia Provider Directory aims to support all endpoint types, including FHIR endpoints, SMD endpoints, and others, to meet future Health Connect use cases and enable interoperability for information exchange.

Various technical endpoints are used throughout Australia for sending secure health information including those provided by secure messaging providers. Currently, the NHSD supports some secure messaging provider (SMD) endpoints and makes them available through the NHSD's FHIR API. Therefore, for the initial release, the plan is to source available SMD endpoints from NHSD and include them in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory.

In contrast, standardised FHIR endpoints in Australia are not yet well-defined. Additional work is required across the industry to establish clear definitions for FHIR endpoints, including connection type, payload types etc. Once these details are finalised and active FHIR endpoints are identified, they will be incorporated into the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory as part of the future releases.

Importantly, the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory  is being designed to be the best point for connecting to real-time provider information. It will include validated Medicare provider numbers, which directly supports the use case you described around reducing billing errors and improving automation for providers working across multiple locations and organisations.

What is the relationship between the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory with the Current Healthcare Provider Directory (HPD)? 

The Agency is working with Services Australia to assume responsibility as the service operator for the Healthcare Provider Directory (HPD). The HPD provides the foundational healthcare identifier infrastructure that underpins the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory. Building on this foundation, the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory will deliver additional capabilities, including:

• Enhanced discoverability of healthcare services and practitioners.
• Support for richer data such as service types, languages spoken, and communication preferences.
• Interoperability through modern standards (FHIR) for easier integration with clinical and administrative systems.
• Future flexibility to include broader provider types as policy evolves.

Will the FHIR response for the Provider have all the MPN's with the Status Inactive as well?

Initially, only active MPNs that have been linked to a practitioner in Provider Connect Australia and attested to a specific location where that practitioner delivers healthcare services, will be published in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory and appear in search results. The project team is currently seeking legal advice regarding the provision of a direct data feed of MPNs from Medicare, which may include both active and inactive statuses.

Is this intended to incorporate aged care and home care services?

Yes. Any Healthcare Provider Organisation (HPI-O) or Healthcare Support Service Provider Organisation (HSP-O), that can be a legal entity, or a part of a legal entity that provides healthcare or healthcare-related services or support services and is registered with the Healthcare Identifiers’ Service (HI Service) having assigned with a Healthcare Identifier (HPI-O or HSP-O respectively) will be included and listed on the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory. The Health Connect Australia Provider Directory has been designed to be extensible to non-health care entities and persons in the future.

When will the Auth API be released? 

The initial release for Authorisation will use NASH PKI certificates and this will be available in Q1/Q2 of FY2026-27. The exact rollout date is to be confirmed.

How can referral systems correctly identify and route referrals and responses to the right practice when a provider (such as a GP) works at multiple practices?

Practitioners’ affiliations or associations with their respective workplaces, including healthcare organisations, healthcare services, locations and practitioner roles, are maintained and updated by authorised users (e.g. Practice Managers) in Provider Connect Australia. This information will be made available for discovery through the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory. When users search for a healthcare service, facility/site, location, or practitioner, the directory will return the related healthcare services, locations, practitioner’s role, and the relevant endpoint details for that service or location. This information can then be used for electronic communication, including sending referrals.

What happens when a provider is removed or suppressed in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory, and what are the obligations for downstream systems?

Under the updated Healthcare Provider Directory (HPD) legislative framework (2025), consent is no longer required for the collection, use, or disclosure of a healthcare provider’s personal information for HPD purposes. Healthcare providers may request that their personal information not be disclosed, and the the Provider Directory Operator is legally required to comply. In these cases, personal information may remain within the Provider Directory for operational purposes but must not be discoverable.

When a healthcare provider turns global visibility off, their information is hidden in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory. Downstream systems, such as clinical systems, are notified of this change through the next bulk data update.
Systems that have stored the provider’s details must:

• Delete the provider’s personal information
• Delete linked workplaces, locations, services, or roles
• Make sure the provider is no longer visible to users

If only some details are hidden (for example, one workplace), systems must remove only that information.

Downstream systems must refresh their data at least every 7 days and no more frequently than once every 24 hours to make sure privacy changes are applied and information remains accurate and secure.

Guidance for handling provider suppression, including required business rules and behaviours, is defined in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory FHIR Implementation Guide. These requirements will be incorporated into the conformance process to ensure downstream systems correctly implement suppression handling and consistently apply privacy related updates.

Who is responsible if suppressed provider data remains in downstream systems?

The Health Connect Australia Provider Directory Operator is responsible for suppressing provider information in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory and notifying downstream systems of the change. Once a downstream system has been notified (for example, through a bulk data update), the downstream system operator is responsible for deleting the suppressed data from their local system and making sure it is no longer visible to users.

If suppressed information remains after notification and within the required update timeframe, responsibility rests with the downstream system operator.

Does suppressing a provider’s information in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory affect their HPI I or ability to upload to My Health Record?

No. Suppressing a provider’s information in the Health Connect Australia Provider Directory (the Provider Directory) does not affect their Healthcare Provider Identifier–Individual (HPI I) or their ability to upload information to My Health Record.

My Health Record operates as an independent system with its own identifiers, access controls, and authorisation processes. Suppression of practitioner information in the Provider Directory only affects the visibility and discoverability of that information within the Provider Directory and downstream consuming systems. It does not remove or deactivate a provider’s HPI I, nor does it impact their authorisation to contribute to My Health Record, provided they continue to meet My Health Record participation and access requirements.

What do the arrows represent in the UML data model diagram, and do they limit how organisations or healthcare services can be discovered or listed?

This diagram complies with UML standard. The arrows in the UML diagram show which way the reference points between resources. In this case, an organisation in FHIR does not point to the Healthcare Service records it provides. Instead, it works the other way around: each Healthcare Service record points to the organisation that provides it. 

Even though the organisation doesn’t list its services directly, you can find all the services an organisation provides. FHIR allows you to search “in reverse” — meaning you can ask the system to return all HealthcareService records that refer to a particular organisation through their providedBy link.

In practice:

• Organisations do not store a list of healthcare services.
• HealthcareService records store a reference to their providing organisation.
• Systems can still retrieve “all services provided by this organisation” by finding all HealthcareService records that point back to it.

For more information please visit: Health Connect Australia