Public consultations on e-health
Nicola Roxon
posted Friday, 26 February 2010
In recognition of the ongoing community and stakeholder interest in e-health, the Government has referred the Healthcare Identifiers Bill to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs.
This gives the public and stakeholders an additional opportunity to find out further information about Individual Healthcare Identifiers and provide feedback on the proposed legislation.
The legislation, the Healthcare Identifiers Bill, allows for a unique 16 digit number to be created for every Australian and all health care providers by the middle of this year.
Individual Healthcare Identifier’ or IHI’s, are to be provided to all individuals, in addition to Medicare numbers, as a further step to ensure the privacy and security of an e-health system.
IHI’s are essential in creating a single process to accurately and consistently identify patients and healthcare providers.
This legislation is an important part of the Rudd Government’s reform agenda. Without healthcare identifiers there cannot be an integrated, consistent, e-health system in Australia.
The Committee is now seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations.
For further information on the Committee’s investigation or to find out how to make a written submission, please visit www.aph.gov.au.
Submissions should be received by 05 March 2010.
The Committee will report on 15 March 2010.