Healthcare Identifiers: Passed by Parliament
Legislation to set up the Healthcare Identifiers Service has been passed by Parliament.
View by date:
Previous MinistersPDF printable version of Healthcare Identifiers: Passed by Parliament (PDF 22 KB)
24 June 2010
Legislation to set up the Healthcare Identifiers Service was passed by federal Parliament today.
All patients will get individual healthcare identifiers (IHIs) under the Healthcare Identifiers Act. This will boost safety and quality for patients and cut waste and duplication.
This is a key building block in the Government’s ambitious e health reform agenda – helping to deliver a better, more streamlined health system for Australian families.
Healthcare identifiers will improve the management and communication of health information for healthcare delivery.
They will help provider organisations better identify and manage patient information.
Unique healthcare identifiers will now be allocated by the Healthcare Identifiers Service, operated by Medicare Australia.
This national approach recognises that identifiers are part of the core infrastructure needed for secure electronic communications across Australia’s health system.
Healthcare identifiers are a key building block of the Government’s plans to invest $466.7 million over the next two years to revolutionise healthcare delivery through the introduction of personally-controlled electronic health records.
The decision to establish a personally-controlled electronic health record will be a personal one and will require individual consent.
People will not need to remember their IHI to have access to healthcare services.
The IHI is separate to an electronic health record and holds only enough information to clearly identify a person.
Unauthorised use of healthcare identifiers will be subject to offence and penalty provisions.
Healthcare professionals will be able to retrieve a patient’s IHI using their current Medicare card or DVA treatment card or via a demographic search.
Legislation to establish the Healthcare Identifiers Service was introduced to federal Parliament on 10 February this year.
Following today’s passage of the legislation, regulations to support the operation of the Healthcare Identifiers Service will be considered by the Federal Executive Council.
The regulations will help healthcare providers and software vendors better understand how the IHIs will affect their current business practices.
More information about healthcare identifiers and the Healthcare Identifiers Service is available at www.ehealthinfo.gov.au or www.medicare.gov.au
For all media inquiries, please contact the Minister's Office on 02 6277 7220
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.