The following appeared in the last hour or two.
Tight deadline for e-health identifier bill inquiry
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- February 25, 2010
THE controversial Healthcare Identifiers Bill has been referred to a Senate inquiry, but interested parties will need to meet a very tight deadline for comment, with a report due back before federal parliament by March 15.
The Senate Scrutiny of Bills committee said the HI bill "seeks to introduce a significant change by implementing a national system to assign healthcare identifiers for consumers and providers".
Under the proposed law, introduced by federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, unique identifiers will be mandatorily issued to all Australians by Medicare Australia, which will operate the HI regime.
If the bill is passed, from July 1 all Australians will be issued with a 16-digit unique number linked to existing Medicare numbers, while all medical providers and healthcare organisations will also be given a unique 16-digit identifier.
.....
The Senate Community Affairs committee will have to consider whether the bill contains sufficient privacy safeguards, the operation of the HI service, including access to identifiers, and its relationship to the wider national e-health agenda and future electronic health records.
Written submissions should be lodged by March 5, and public hearings are expected to be held in Canberra on March 9-10.
In referring the matter, the Bills committee queries the compulsory nature of identifiers, noting that the service operator "is not required to consider" whether providers or patients agree to participate in the new regime.
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More here:
So it is time to get weaving if you want your say!
It seems the first contact can be here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Committee/scrutiny/inquiries.htm
Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills
- About the Committee
- Committee membership
- Alert Digests
- Reports
- Current inquiries
- Completed inquiries and other reports
- Ten years of scrutiny
- Related publications
For further information, contact:
Toni Dawes
Committee Secretary
Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Phone:+61 2 6277 3050
Fax: +61 2 6277 5881
Email:scrutiny.sen@aph.gov.au
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The main issue in my mind in all this is the lack of apparent capacity and understanding from Medicare / NEHTA about how major change programs are implemented in the Health Sector.
To date my view is that their performance has been abysmal with lack of consultation with the software industry, care providers and consumers, absent implementation plans and demonstration foilware offered as working demonstration systems.
Get going if you share this or any other concerns.
David.
2 comments:
Crash or crash through is the implementation change program modus operandi being adopted by Medicare and NEHTA. The Government is driving them hard to deliver something pronto, regardless. It will all end in tears. The states can see this and they are bolstering their defenses against the imminent Prime Ministerial announcement on health reform. Kevin Rudd's credibility to deliver complex change programs is severely damaged. When he makes his health announcement the media and public will respond with "Tell us another". Pink bats killed people. Health kills people. What will happen if you get more control over running health?
There appears to be a sense of desperation to do something, but their operatives are trying to crash through in all the wrong places and for all the wrong reasons. You can't solve a problem you don't understand.
At the moment they have a blowtorch trying to penetrate into the eHealth base, but have chosen the try and burn a hole into the Petrol tank as their first step. This rarely ends well....
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