Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to sum up the Health Legislation Amendment (eHealth) Bill 2015. The My Health Record system has the potential to change the nature of health care in Australia and become a widely accepted, everyday part of good healthcare management. This bill gets us closer to that goal. I thank the members for their contributions to the debate on this bill. I thank members of the opposition for, in the main, approving the direction we are taking and for understanding the vital importance of this e-health record coming to fruition as soon as possible.

The bill will reboot the national electronic health record system. It will also rename it as My Health Record, which is simpler, more meaningful and ultimately for the individual to whom it relates. The bill also implements the recommendations of the 2013 reviews of the national electronic health record and the Healthcare Identifiers Service, which facilitates increased participation in the system and improvements in usability and clinical content for individuals and healthcare providers.

At present about one in 10 Australians has an electronic health record. That is not enough to make it an effective national system, and doctors do not see enough value as yet to use it. If the majority of people have a My Health Record, more healthcare providers will use it and include their patients' health information on it, and this will improve the overall value of the system. In order to identify the optimum approaches for maximising participation in the system and increase uptake, the government will conduct trials of different participation arrangements in 2016. These will include trials of an opt-out model.

The bill enables me, as the responsible minister, to make rules to apply the opt-out arrangements to a community. I will consult with the states and territories before making any such rules. The process for choosing trial sites has been made public, and trial sites are expected to be selected shortly. Individuals in an opt-out trial would automatically have a My Health Record created for them unless they opt out, which they will be able to do in a number of ways. Individuals who do not opt out will be able to exercise the same access controls over their My Health Record that are available today so that they can manage who can access their My Health Record and what information it contains. Extensive communication will be undertaken in the trial communities before trials begin. This will allow individuals to make an informed decision about whether or not to opt out. Outside the opt-out trials, the My Health Record system will continue to operate on an opt-in basis.

To ensure that we implement the best systems for Australians, an independent evaluation of the trials will be undertaken in 2016. If the trials provide evidence that an opt-out system is a better approach for improving participation in the My Health Record system, the government may decide to implement the opt-out model nationally. The bill also makes a range of other amendments as part of improving the operation of the My Health Record system and Healthcare Identifiers Service. Key changes will broaden the penalties available for deliberate misuse of certain information; clarify what is considered to be a health service and health information; establish copyright arrangements to ensure that the permitted use of health information obtained from a My Health Record does not infringe copyright; provide for regulations to specify new entities that may handle healthcare identifiers for health related purposes; and align the legislative frameworks for both the My Health Record system and the Healthcare Identifiers Service. These changes take us closer to delivering a My Health Record system that can help improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians.

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