Lead Story – Mar ’16

My Health Record re-launches and changes to Practice Incentive Payments

On March 4, Health Minister, Sussan Ley, re-launched the My Health Record signaling the start of a new era of faster, more effective and more efficient health care for Australians.

The launch signals a push by the Government to generate greater take up of the My Health Record through trialling the automatic creation of electronic health records for more-than one million residents in Western Sydney and North Queensland, to improve coverage rates. Under the previous opt-in model, less than one in 10 Australians signed up.

Ms Ley said the Turnbull Government had particularly focussed on protecting patient privacy as part of the new My Health Record, passing supporting legislation mandating fines of up to half a million dollars and even jail sentences for anyone who tries to deliberately misuse or access information in the health record.

“It’s important Australians are able to have access to their medical records and safely and securely share them with health professionals no matter where they are in the country if we are to truly improve clinical outcomes and efficiency,” Ms Ley said.

CLICK HERE for the GP and patient promotional video.

 

The Practice Incentive Program eHealth Incentive

By Helen Purdy, SNHN eHealth Coordinator

To encourage use of My Health Record by general practice the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) eHealth Incentive will change from 1 May 2016 and cover the period May – July 16 for the August 2016 payment quarter.

What will this mean for my practice?

Practices who have been receiving the Practice Incentive Program eHealth Incentive (ePIP) will now need to re-apply for the Practice Incentive Program Digital Health Incentive. The Department of Human Services (DHS) will be sending each practice correspondence over the next few weeks advising of how to reapply.

What are the new Digital Health Incentive criteria?

To meet the criteria for the new Digital Health Incentive each practice will be required to upload shared health summaries to the My Health Record for at least 0.5% of their practice’s standardised whole patient equivalent (SWPE) per quarter. The Department of Human services will advise what your current SWPE count is in their correspondence to you so that you can determine what your quarterly upload will be.

In addition to this new requirement the other five requirements for meeting the previous ePIP criteria will continue to apply.

CLICK HERE for more including the five Practice Incentive Program (PIP) Digital Health Incentive Requirements.

How can we tell if our software is ready to engage with the new My Health Record?

Ensure that your software has the correct, current digital certificates installed (NASH and PKI) and that your organisational identifier (HPI-O) and the identifiers of your medical and nursing staff (HPI-Is) have been entered into the software. To test this go to your patient’s details and validate their IHI. If you get an error message please contact your IT provider, your software vendor or the NEHTA Customer Care Team on 1300 901 001.

How can we upload Shared Health Summaries if our patients don’t have a My Health Record?

Practices can create a My Health Record for their patient in less than a minute using the Assisted Registration function within their clinical information systems software. The record is active as soon as it is created so patients can register as they wait, proceed to the consult and have a shared health summary uploaded immediately. There is no longer any requirement to have a patient sign a hard copy consent form to apply). Patients can also register for their own record online

CLICK HERE for the My Health Record registration page or Tel: 1800 723 471 to register over the phone.

How can we access training and support materials to meet the new criteria?

NEHTA’s ‘on demand training’ environment can enable simulations for patient registration and uploading shared health summaries.

CLICK HERE for training resources.