Australian Immunisation Register for health professionals

The Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) is a national register that records vaccines given to people of all ages in Australia.

The AIR can only accept immunisation information from recognised vaccination providers in Australia. This means the AIR cannot accept any information from parents.

Medical practitioners, midwives and nurse practitioners with a Medicare provider number are:

• automatically recognised as vaccination providers, and
• authorised to record or get immunisation data from the AIR

Other eligible health professionals and organisations can apply to become recognised vaccination providers and access the AIR using HPOS.

Recognised vaccination providers should record their patient’s immunisation details on the AIR. Recognised vaccination providers can also record vaccines given overseas if the relevant documents are translated into English.

Recording information on the AIR is important. The AIR is used to:

• determine a person’s immunisation status, regardless of who immunised them
• determine a person’s eligibility for some family assistance payments
• provide an Immunisation History Statement to prove their immunisation status for child care, school, employment or travel purposes
• monitor immunisation coverage levels and service delivery, which can help to identify regions at risk during disease outbreaks
• measure vaccination coverage at a local, state and national level

There are risks with revaccinating against certain diseases and people can only get some vaccines once. For your patient’s safety, it’s important that you record all immunisation information on the AIR.

The AIR lets recognised vaccination providers:

• record patient immunisation information
• update or correct some data already sent to the AIR
• request reports to help identify any patients due or overdue for a vaccination
• report immunisation medical exemptions online - eligible vaccination providers only
• get information payments for the provision of certain vaccinations - eligible vaccination providers only

Eligible vaccination providers can get an information payment for:

• completing a National Immunisation Program Schedule for a child under 7 years old and recording it on the AIR
• following up and vaccinating a child under 7 years old who’s more than 2 months overdue for their childhood vaccinations under the National Immunisation Program Schedule and recording it on the AIR

The information payments are:

• up to $6 per completed immunisation schedule for children under 7 years old
• $6 per completed catch-up schedule for children under 7 years old

We pay information payments by Electronic Funds Transfer on the second last Tuesday of each month. To get a payment you need to:

• provide your bank account details when you register as a vaccination provider with the AIR, or
• complete an Australian Immunisation Register - Bank Account Details for Vaccination Providers form

To update your bank account details on the AIR, you can:

• use Health Professional Online Services (HPOS), or
• complete and send us the Australian Immunisation Register  - Bank Account Details for Vaccination Providers form

Recognised vaccination providers can access their monthly immunisation payment statement on the AIR site. Alternatively, they can get it in the post.

Vaccination providers can check or change their statement preferences on the AIR site.

The immunisation notifications reconciliation report includes immunisation details recorded on the AIR during the last month. This report is available on the AIR site on the second last Tuesday of each month.

Identifying overdue children

You can get reports from the AIR site to help you identify children overdue for immunisation, including:

• AIR010A - AIR Due/Overdue Practice Report
• AIR011A - Due/Overdue report by locality
• AIR011B - Due/Overdue report by vaccination provider

To get these reports go to accessing the AIR using HPOS.

The National Immunisation Program (NIP) Schedule specifies the ages people in Australia should get certain vaccines. Read more about the National Immunisation Program Schedule on the Department of Health website.

State and territory health departments provide specific jurisdictional information about immunisations. For more information go to:

• ACT Department of Health
• NSW Ministry of Health
• NT Department of Health
• QLD Department of Health
• SA Department of Health
• TAS Department of Health and Human Services
• VIC Department of Health and Human Services
• WA Department of Health

Only certain doctors can provide immunisation medical exemptions.

Read more about immunisation medical exemptions

We automatically include people who are enrolled in Medicare on the AIR. We add people who aren’t eligible to enrol in Medicare to the AIR when a recognised vaccination provider records immunisation details for them.

To ensure AIR data is accurate, it’s important to remind patients to notify Medicare if their details change.  

We take all possible care to avoid adding to the distress of bereaved families. If you know about the death of a patient, contact Medicare.

If you’re a medical practitioner, midwife or nurse practitioner with a Medicare provider number, you’re:

• automatically a recognised vaccination provider, and
• authorised to record or get immunisation data from the AIR

Read about accessing AIR using HPOS.

If you’re not a medical practitioner, midwife or nurse practitioner with a Medicare provider number, you can apply to become a recognised vaccination provider.

Read about registering and accessing the AIR using HPOS.

Complete the Australian Immunisation Register - Application to register as a vaccination provider form. Send it to your state or territory health department for approval. When we get the approved form, we’ll give you a unique AIR registration number to show you’re a vaccination provider.

You’ll get a letter with your AIR vaccination provider number. Use this number when you send immunisation details to the AIR.

Vaccination providers should record patient immunisation information on the AIR. The easiest ways are through Practice Management Software or the AIR site.

Read more about recording patient information

You can use the AIR through HPOS to record immunisation details, view and print immunisation histories, request reports, and update provider contact details.

Read more about accessing the AIR using HPOS

Learn how to use the AIR to get immunisation history statements and record encounters, catch-up schedules and exemptions.

Read more about help using AIR online for health professionals

The AIR produces statistical, identified and access reports for recognised vaccination providers.

Read more about reports available from the AIR site

The AIR national due and overdue rules for immunisation information are based on the Australian Immunisation Handbook. They help you better understand how the AIR works.

AIR immunisation stationery order forms:

• Australian Immunisation Register - Immunisation stationery order for QLD and NT form
• Australian Immunisation Register - Immunisation stationery order for NSW VIC SA WA TAS ACT form

There are vaccine codes for software products that send claims to the AIR through Medicare online claiming.

Read more about AIR vaccine code formats

We produce education modules to help you better understand how the AIR works.