Steps taken to safeguard health IDs
AUSTRALIA’S health ministers have committed to restrictions on the use of national health identity numbers, including “effective” privacy arrangements and penalties for misuse, according to a brief communique released late today.
Federal and state ministers have agreed to release draft legislation for the healthcare identifiers regime for public consultation ahead of its planned introduction to the federal parliament in the autumn 2010 sittings.
The tight timeframe means responses to the draft will likely be required during the Christmas/school holiday period, testing the resources of many largely voluntary consumer and privacy advocacy groups which have voiced concerns over aspects of the proposals this year.
Under the planned Unique Healthcare Identifier scheme, all patients will be issued with an individual health ID number linked to their existing Medicare number and card; the number, together with a person’s name and date of birth, is essential for the accurate matching of health information sent across electronic systems by medical providers such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories and pharmacists.
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(Photo courtesy of blog.initiate.com)
Filed under: Government, Information Technology, Records Management
