Electronic Health Records and Healthcare Identifiers: Legislation Discussion Paper

Overview

The Australian Government is proposing changes to the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system, including renaming it the My Health Record system, and the Healthcare Identifiers Service, in response to reviews of each system undertaken in 2013.

The Electronic Health Records and Healthcare Identifiers: Legislation Discussion Paper outlines proposed changes to the legislative frameworks of the PCEHR system and Healthcare Identifiers Service that would support the Government’s proposals.   

This paper is intended to provide a plain English description of the proposed legislative changes, and a brief analysis of why the changes are needed.  It covers issues such as the establishment of the Australian Commission for eHealth, changing the name of the PCEHR system to the My Health Record system, opt-out trials, obligations of participants in the PCEHR system, and the handling of healthcare organisations’ healthcare identifiers.

The purpose of the paper is to encourage discussion and input from the public on the proposed changes.

You can find out more about the paper by reading the fact sheets for individuals and healthcare providers.

Why your views matter

The purpose of this consultation is to seek feedback from the community to inform the development of legislative changes

These proposed changes should not be considered final.  During the process of legislative development further changes can arise as the result of consultation with the public and government agencies, privacy impact assessments and legislative constraints.  The proposals are also subject to Government decision and Parliamentary agreement. 

Feedback on the discussion paper must be provided in writing and must identify the name/s of the party/ies and/or organisation/s they represent (if any), as well as contact details.

You can make a submission in any of the following ways:

1. mail it to PCEHR/HI Discussion Paper Feedback, Department of Health, MDP 1003, GPO Box 9848, CANBERRA ACT 2601
2. email it to ehealth.legislation@health.gov.au
3. upload it by clicking on the Upload a submission button below (no longer available).

The period for making comments and submissions on the discussion paper closed at 5:00 p.m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Wednesday, 24 June 2015.  All comments and submissions received by the closing deadline will be reviewed and will inform legislative development.

Submissions will be made public and shared with relevant Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies to inform consideration of the proposed changes.  If you want your submission to remain confidential please mark the submission as such.

Important note: It is important to be aware that confidential submissions may still be subject to access under Freedom of Information law.