Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon said the move would create an integrated and consistent e-health system, giving confidence to consumers and providers.
Ms Roxon said Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI’s) would be provided in addition to Medicare numbers, creating a single process to identify patients and providers.
She said the legislation introduced last week would help prevent the inaccuracies and inefficiencies found in the current system, where a patient visiting a doctor has a different identifying number on their health record from that of the number at the pharmacy where they get their prescription filled.
Ms Roxon said these disparities put patients at risk of mismatched records and duplicate medical tests.
The Minister cited the Health and Hospital’s Reform Commission, which found the availability of person-controlled individual health records was “one of the most important opportunities to improve the quality and safety of health care, reduce waste and inefficiency, and improve continuity and health outcomes for patients.”
Ms Roxon said minor amendments would also be made to the Privacy Act to ensure the Federal Privacy Commissioner could act against individuals or companies that misused an individual’s healthcare identifier.
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Quelle/Source: PS News, 15.02.2010
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