And the new rules could shut down existing e-health programs such as shared care for patients with chronic diseases, clinical trials, secure messaging services and e-prescribing because software and third-party service providers would not be treated as eligible organisations.
The federal government's controversial bill to establish an HI service and assign a unique 16-digit health identifier to every Australian, as well as medical professionals and health organisations, is due for debate in the Senate during the brief budget session next month.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon came under pressure during a Senate inquiry last month to release the draft regulations governing the operation of the service, initially by Medicare.
But the fresh round of submissions has revealed more concerns.
Although doctors want a moratorium on penalties until they can comply with new audit and record-keeping rules, industry, privacy and consumer groups warn enforcement will be key to public confidence in the system.
According to the Australian Medical Association, the regulations "impose a vast amount of red tape on practices", and "very little obligation on the HI service".
"There are eight pages of penalties for medical practices in the nine pages of draft regulations," it says. "This is likely to be a significant deterrent to using identifiers."
A health provider who fails to notify Medicare of a changed email address within 14 days will incur a $5500 fine, for example.
But the Consumers Health Forum wants action from the outset, rather than allowing a two-year transition period. "Penalties should be applied if providers are not actively implementing improved identity management systems," the CHF says.
The Australian Information Industry Association also rejects the proposed moratorium. "The regulations set high penalties for failure to adequately identify any person in (an) organisation who has accessed the service in relation to a disclosure," it says.
"Transition to better identity management systems will be considerable but a gradual improvement will largely ameliorate provider issues. However, public support may be put at risk if it is apparent exceptions are to be made for security or identity breaches, or failure (even innocently) to comply with the new system."
Queensland's Information Commissioner, Julie Kinross, says the ability "to accurately track who has accessed an identifier is one of the scheme's core privacy protections". "The proposed two-year (delay) is too long for a program that will handle the most sensitive of personal information," she said.
Meanwhile, a Health spokeswoman said the HI service was on track to start on July 1, subject to passage of the legislation. "The systems development work that will allow Medicare to manage this initiative is in the final testing stage," she said.
"With a change of this kind, it is expected that practice software changes will be made progressively.
"Medicare and the National E-Health Transition Authority are engaging with software vendors over technical advice for the necessary software changes."
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 20.04.2010
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
