What is the Health Information Privacy Code?

The Health Information Privacy Code (HIPC) sets specific rules for agencies in the health sector. It covers health information collected, used, held and disclosed by health agencies and takes the place of the information privacy principles for the health sector.

The HIPC applies to the health information about identifiable individuals and applies to:

• all agencies providing personal or public health or disability services such as primary health organisations, district health boards, rest homes, supported accommodation, doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and optometrists; and
• some agencies that do not provide health services to individuals but which are part of the health sector such as ACC, the Ministry of Health, the Health Research Council, health insurers and professional disciplinary bodies.

The Privacy Act gives the Privacy Commissioner the power to issue codes of practice that become part of the law. These codes may modify the operation of the Act for specific industries, agencies, activities or types of personal information.

Codes often modify one or more of the information privacy principles to take account of special circumstances which affect a class of information (e.g. health information). The rules established by a code may be more stringent or less stringent than the principles they replace.