We are now less than 5 months away from the time when Medicare / NEHTA are to deliver their bright shiny new HI Service upon an unsuspecting public and profession.
As I presently understand things the facts are these.
1. The legislation to establish the HI Service does not seem to be going to be introduced this session so the next session (of 3 weeks) when that might be possible begins 22nd Feb and once this window passes the next session is the Budget Session in May.
It would seem after the 18th of March the pollies do not come back until the 11th May. So essentially if this is not in and passed at least the Reps by the 22nd of February it probably won’t make it till quite this year – or possibly even before the election (Sept Oct seems to be the guess).
We also know the Opposition has indicated it does not want to rush consideration of the HI Service Bill.
2. There has been some bench top demonstrations of the proposed system but no pilot at any scale to assure that the system does not have either technical, security or process issues that need to be addressed before a full roll out.
3. If it has happened at all, serious consultation with the system providers on use of the Service has not really been engaged.
4. SA Health and others are planning to do without the HI service for a number of years to come.
5. No one has yet come up with a compelling reason why healthcare providers should get involved with the HI Service at their own expense and inconvenience.
6. The fact that the National Provider Registration Scheme does not start until July 1, 2010 means there will be no properly credentialed providers until after the Service was meant to have started.
7. We have some, apparently draft, ‘communications plans’ which should not really spend any money until there is certainty of what actually gets into law.
Take it from me. I reckon we are going to see success defined as an operating system on a bench and all else being defined as having been blocked by a slow parliament and health software providers who want some assurances of what they are getting into before spending money.
I reckon it will be 2-3 years at best before any useful HI service is actually being really used and probably longer than that.
July 1, 2010 is just a meaningless date which will pass with no substantive change to e-Health in Australia I reckon.
I look forward to watching the NEHTA spin attempting “redefining success”. I am sure it will be good fun for all.
David.
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