The Health Information Act (HIA) came into force on April 25, 2001. Amendments made by the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2) (Bill 11) came into force on June 22, 2026, with further amendments in force on July 2, 2026.
Some of the main purposes of the HIA are
- to establish strong and effective mechanisms to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to their health information and to protect the confidentiality of that information;
- to enable health information to be shared and accessed to provide health services and well-being services and to manage the health system; and
- to provide custodians with a framework for the collection, use and disclosure of health information, which must be carried out in the most limited manner and with the highest degree of anonymity possible in the circumstances.
Individuals have rights under HIA including:
- the right to request access to their own health information in the custody or under the control of custodians, subject to limited and specific exceptions set out in the HIA,
- the right to ask a custodian to correct or amend their health information,
- the right to request a copy of the logs showing who has accessed or used their health information via the Alberta EHR or has shared health information,
- the right to have custodians consider their expressed wishes regarding how much of their health information is disclosed, or made accessible via the Alberta Electronic Health Record (Alberta EHR, known as Alberta Netcare),
- the right to request a review by the Commissioner of a custodian’s decision about access to or correction or amendment of their health information, or to make a complaint to the Commissioner if they believe that their health information has been collected, used or disclosed in contravention of the HIA.
Custodians subject to HIA include:
- The Ministers and Departments of:
- Primary and Preventative Health Services,
- Hospital and Surgical Health Services,
- Mental Health and Addiction, and
- Assisted Living and Social Services
- Provincial health agencies, provincial health corporations, health services delivery organizations and other entities under the Provincial Health Agencies Act
- Covenant Health
- Operators of approved hospitals and continuing care homes
- Ambulance operators
- Licensed pharmacies
- The Health Quality Council of Alberta and the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence
- Regulated members of 13 designated health profession colleges: physicians and surgeons, registered nurses, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, denturists, optometrists, opticians, chiropractors, podiatric physicians, midwives, dietitians and physiotherapists
- Other entities designated in the regulations, such as the Health Advocate, the Mental Health Patient Advocate and the Compassionate Intervention Commission
HIA requires custodians to establish a privacy management program, to submit privacy impact assessments to the Commissioner before introducing or changing administrative practices or information systems or in other specific circumstances, and to notify the Commissioner, the Minister and affected individuals of any loss of or unauthorized access to or disclosure of individually identifying health information where there is a risk of harm to an individual. HIA also sets rules for shared health information, the Alberta EHR, the use of automated systems, data matching and research.
HIA also applies to the actions of affiliates of custodians. Affiliates include employees, appointees, volunteers, students, contractors, agents and information managers of a custodian, as well as health services providers with privileges to admit and treat patients at an approved hospital. Examples include reception and nursing staff at a doctor's office, pharmacy technicians, or information desk and food service workers in a hospital. Affiliates must comply with the Act, the regulations and the custodian's privacy management program. Ultimately, custodians are responsible for the information collected, used or disclosed by their affiliates.
The full text of the HIA is available here.
Associated regulations include the Health Information Regulation, Alberta Electronic Health Record Regulation and Health Information (Ministerial) Regulation.