And a Health spokeswoman says new legislation will be needed before the introduction of the Gillard government's $467 million personally controlled e-health record system in July 2012.
While an announcement on the successful tenderer for the $218m smartcard and public key infrastructure is still pending, the spokeswoman said NASH had not been a mandatory requirement for the initial sites.
"The lead sites will manage authentication using the solutions they use today," she said.
"When the NASH is available, these solutions will be integrated into the NASH system."
But the PCEHR will not launch until outstanding technical and legal components were in place.
"Authentication and audit processes will be implemented for the PCEHR. That is why the NASH is being developed," the spokeswoman said.
"Also, neither the Healthcare Identifiers Act (passed in June last year) nor the related regulations provide for the operation of a shared record system.
"That is why the government will be introducing further legislation to support the PCEHR."
A National E-Health Transition Authority spokeswoman said the final decision on a private sector partner for the NASH authentication project was close.
Meanwhile, the Health spokeswoman said a public discussion paper on the PCEHR, promised by Health Minister Nicola Roxon early last month, would now be released later this month.
She confirmed bidders for $55m in grant funds for the "second wave" of projects had based their proposals on NEHTA's high-level draft Concept of Operations.
"The concept of operations is just that -- a conceptual document of how the PCEHR system will operate," she said.
"It is not a detailed specification document.
"The tenders released to date used the draft as a context-setting document.
"The initial version was very much in draft form, and highlighted unresolved conceptual issues. While the document was fit for that purpose, the concept is being updated based on feedback from the e-health conference in Melbourne (in November) and other consumer, vendor and clinical reference consultations.
"When the document is ready it will be released for wider public consultation."
The Australian revealed last week that the cost of the three lead projects has risen by $2m to $14.5m even before work starts.
GP Partners in Brisbane, GP Access in the NSW Hunter Valley and Melbourne have each received grants worth $4.83m, up from the total $12.5m originally allocated by Ms Roxon.
At the same time, NEHTA's funding was topped up by a further $38.5m to manage the PCEHR program over six months to June 30.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 15.02.2011
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