Teleservices for health

Order on the reference system defining the conditions and procedures for implementing the obligation to use the national health identifier (hereinafter, ‘INS reference system’)

The national health identifier (INS) is the registration number in the national directory for the identification of natural persons (more commonly known as the NIR).

Parties involved in care will be required to reference health data with the INS from 1 January 2020, in compliance with the ‘INS reference system’.

It follows from this legal framework that the information systems of these parties must be brought into conformity, in particular to integrate the security measures provided for by the reference system.

The primary security measures consist of:

– limiting the dissemination of the INS beyond the trust of parties involved in care via a local analysis of its authorisations and flows;

– avoiding the incorrect indexing and propagation of an identification error by using local identity vigilance measures and by making it possible, if necessary, to reject a national health identifier considered erroneous;

– securing the storage, exchange and sharing of health data indexed by INS and carrying out a risk analysis and privacy impact study in accordance with the regulations in force;

– ensuring the integrity and reliability of the national health identifier via the use of national teleservices, implemented by the health insurance provider, addressing the reference base of the national directory for the identification of natural persons (NIR).

The reference system requires regular use of two teleservices (recovery and verification of the INS) developed by the national health insurance fund in order to enable parties to:

– access up-to-date information on the INS;

– facilitate and secure the acquisition of the INS via an automatic request (and avoid, in particular, input errors, incorrect allocations, etc.)