Issue 22
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Healthcare Identifier questions answered
Last year in the eHealth in Aged Care newsletter we dedicated various issues to explaining Healthcare Identifiers (HIs) and their importance in
building a national eHealth system, which includes the creation of individual electronic healthcare records for all Australians.
Over the last month HIs have again been a major focus in the media as Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, promised to introduce legislation to
Parliament in the first half of this year that would create the unique electronic IDs*. If legislation passes, Healthcare Identifiers will come
into effect from July 1st, 2010.
The use of HI’s is the first step in the building blocks towards an eHealth system in Australia and it is important that aged care providers
have a clear understanding of the Health Identifiers and how they will be implemented.
The Courier Mail recently released a simple explanation of the proposed HI number which explains, among other things, what they are, why you need
one and how they will be used. (See link below to access the article.)**
Medicare Australia will be operating the unique HI secure system.
Development is currently underway on iCare’s Clinical, Care and Medication Management Solution in preparation for the Individual Healthcare
Identifier and the changes that an eHealth record will bring to the Australian aged care market.
iCare is also building a link to the Medicare Health Identifier Service (HIS) to enable our customers to retrieve a Health Identifier Number.
This will mean that for iCare customers much of the work to implement the Health Identifiers will be taken care of.
*E-health IDs by mid-year: Roxon, Pharmacy News
http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/article/e-health-ids-by-mid-year-roxon/509537.aspx
** Your individual healthcare identifier questions answered, Courier Mail
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26610137-5003426,00.html
Kind regards,
Chris Gray
Managing Director
 Pdf version for print.
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