Another Ridiculous Deadline For Comment on the HI Service Legislation.

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 2:13PM

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.

.....

More here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/tight-deadline-for-e-health-identifier-bill-inquiry/story-e6frgakx-1225834353700

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

-----

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.