Concept of Operations: Relating to the introduction of a Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record System
3.2.6 Access to existing information
When a new PCEHR has been created for an individual, the individual can decide if existing information, from sources such as Medicare information, should be made accessible via their PCEHR.
The individual can allow information from one or more of the following existing sources to be included in their PCEHR:
- Information about healthcare events funded under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).
- Information about packets of medicines dispensed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
- Information about vaccinations given to children under the age of seven via the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR).
- Donation decisions recorded with the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR).
For each of the options above, individuals will be able to select if they wish pre-existing information to be available via their PCEHR or only information from the date of creation of their PCEHR. A description of the Medicare information available is given in Section 4.3.8.
Authorisation for access to information from Medicare information sources will be based on existing Medicare policies. If a child, for example, is listed on multiple Medicare cards, then an authorised representative will only be able to authorise access to information related to their own Medicare card. Medicare information related to a child on other cards cannot be released without the consent of the appropriate cardholder.
Individuals can change these settings at any time. If an individual chooses to have Medicare information included in their PCEHR and at a later time they change the setting, then their PCEHR will stop accumulating Medicare information from that point onwards and any existing Medicare information will remain in their PCEHR (unless they choose to remove it).
As more existing sources of information become available, for example conformant repositories holding an individual’s existing discharge summaries, the individual will be given the option of adding these new sources.
