Protecting Personal Privacy

The Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Program is committed to protecting an individual's privacy and safeguarding the personal information in its possession. When a request to fund benefits is received, the NIHB Program collects, uses, discloses and retains recipients' personal information, in accordance with the applicable federal privacy laws and policies.

Privacy Code

Health Canada has developed a Non-Insured Health Benefits Privacy Code, which represents a consistent approach to privacy and data protection for personal information collected, used, disclosed and retained by the Program. It ensures the NIHB Program's compliance with the Privacy Act.

The objectives of the Privacy Code are:

• To set out the NIHB Program's commitments that will ensure responsible and secure handling of personal information collected, used, disclosed and retained for Program delivery, administration and management; and
• To foster transparency, accountability and increased awareness of the NIHB Program's privacy procedures and practices.

The Non-Insured Health Benefits Privacy Code will be reviewed and revised on an ongoing basis as Federal Government privacy policies, legislation and/or program changes require. The Program would be pleased to receive comments and suggestions on the Code at any time. Comments received will be reviewed for possible incorporation into a later version of the Privacy Code. Please refer to the Summary of comments on the Privacy Code.

The NIHB Privacy Code applies to all Health Canada employees administering and managing the NIHB Program. Organizations or groups administering NIHB benefits through contribution agreements must comply with privacy requirements found in the schedules and the confidentiality clauses that form part of the Terms and Conditions of the agreement. Health care professionals must respect the privacy codes of their regulatory or licensing bodies.

Privacy Training

The NIHB Program has developed an on-line Privacy Training learning tool. Privacy training is mandatory for NIHB employees dealing with recipient's personal information. You may visit the on-line privacy training section to learn more about how personal data is protected.

Within the Privacy Training tool there is a Privacy and Contribution Agreements section which provides information to those who administer benefits on behalf of the federal government through contribution agreements. It summarizes their responsibilities regarding the protection of recipients' personal information in accordance with confidentiality clauses in the agreements.