Australia to mandate health ID number

Tags: Australia Government

17 Feb 2010

The Australian government has said it will mandate a new national e-health number for all citizens.

The move to mandate the unique 16-digit health ID number, to be introduced from July, comes despite an earlier Government promise the new "e-health" system would be on an opt-in basis.

While the new health ID number will not hold information, it is intended to form the basis of a planned new system of electronic health records.

Patients will be able to decide whether they have an e-health record that will give doctors around the country access to information on medical tests, operations and other health information of a patient.

This will revolutionise the health system, make it faster and easier for doctors to get test results and improve patient safety by making medication mix-ups less likely.

The Australian public appear to be sceptical of national ID schemes, and have long memories of previous attempts. Most notably, in l987, the then government was forced to scrap a project for a national identity system called the Australia Card after it proved deeply unpopular.

Jon Hoeksma

Reader's Comments

Australian IHI number not "mandatory"

23 Feb 10 21:02

The new HI Service identifiers for individual healthcare consumers will be automatically issued based on *existing* registrations for the Medicare Australia and Department of Veterans Affairs public medical benefits cards, which are already held by 98% of the Australian population. They small percentage of the population not covered by the public Medical Benefit Schemes will be able to apply for the issue of a number *if they wish*.

IMHO there is *very definitely* no requirement that an HI Service identifier be provided for the delivery of healthcare in Australia, and there are very strong legislative sanctions regarding the use of the HI Service identifiers for any purpose beyond healthcare delivery.

So the IHI number will be pretty much universal but its use is *not* mandated.