Around half that sum was spent since the National E-Health Transition was established in 2005.
Between 1994 and 1998, $21m was spent on e-health projects. In the five years from 1999 to 2004, $564m went into similar work.
Almost $830 million was spent on e-health in the six years from 2004 to 2010, with $430m spent over the last three years.
Details of expenditure have been revealed in federal Health Department's answers to Questions on Notice from the most recent Senate estimates hearing in May.
Liberal Senators Sue Boyce and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells had pursued details of spending on the NEHTA and related work programs.
While the department says a total $206m in funding for NEHTA was agreed to by either the Australian Health Ministers Conference or the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) for the financial years 2006 to 2010 - with the commonwealth providing half - almost $350m has been allocated until July 2012.
In 2006, COAG agreed to a total $130m for foundation work, and in 2008 added a further $218m for a range of activities.
A breakdown of the $218m shows $61.4m was allocated to developing the healthcare identifiers program and the as-yet unstarted National Authentication Service for Health (NASH); $44.5m for e-health services, $34.65m for e-health capabilities and $29m for e-health infrastructure.
More than $34m went to NEHTA's corporate costs, and a further $14m to program funding.
Total funding for the design and build of the HI service amounted to around $98m over four years commencing from 2005. As at June 30 this year, NEHTA reported spending approximately $93m on the design and build of the HI service, with the remaining $4.8m "fully committed".
COAG has since provided a further $52m to pay for the first two years' operation of the HI service, with Medicare the initial provider.
"Future funding of the HI Service will be determined through the National Partnership Agreement on E-Health," the Health Department says. "The NPA is an agreement between the commonwealth, states and territories on the implementation of e-health initiatives and also sets out the financial contribution these parties will make to the operation of the NEHTA."
Ongoing operating costs, and necessary system changes, "will depend partly on demand from healthcare providers. A contract is being negotiated for this phase", it said.
The departmental responses also revealed that funding for GPs through IT and e-health Practice Incentive Programs totalled more than $1bn between 2000 and 2010.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 23.09.2010
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