In a submission to the Senate Committee on the Healthcare identifiers Bill 2010, the Commissioner, Helen Versey said the Bill was “somewhat artificial and limited” as it dealt with arrangements around the healthcare identifiers but did not discuss broader privacy issues concerning e-health.
Weiterlesen: Australia: Privacy number’s up for e-health identifier
With two state ballots already decided and a federal poll towards the end of the year, there are several opportunities for the Australian people to have their say.
Weiterlesen: Australia: National plan is needed for emerging digital economy
To shore up support for the e-health scheme, advocates have compiled dozens of examples of how the patient identifiers would save lives and end long delays in locating patient records for effective treatment.
Last Tuesday, following revelations in The Australian that Medicare Australia had provided the Senate inquiry on the HI bill with new details on suspected staff snooping, the document detailing data privacy breaches disappeared from the Senate Community Affairs committee website. Also missing were three National E-Health Transition Authority responses, posted the previous day, to questions on notice from the Senate inquiry.
Weiterlesen: Australia: Health bill papers 'fall of' government websites
National E-Health Transition Authority chief executive Peter Fleming told a Senate inquiry into the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Bill that - once the legislation and as yet undisclosed regulatory controls are passed by Parliament - up to 6 million Australians could have Medicare-assigned unique patient numbers, intended to support clinician access to personal health information, within that timeframe.