EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Human Services
Medicare Australia Act 1973
Medicare Australia (Functions of Chief Executive Officer) Amendment Direction 2007 (No. 2)
Background
Section 4 of the Medicare Australia Act 1973 (the Act) establishes Medicare Australia.
Sections 5 and 8AG of the Act create the office of Chief Executive Officer of Medicare Australia (CEO), with statutory functions. The CEO is, under the Minister and through the Secretary to the Department of Human Services, responsible for managing Medicare Australia.
Section 5 of the Act sets out a number of mechanisms for conferral of functions on the CEO. Paragraph 5(1)(d) of the Act provides that the CEO has any functions the Minister, by writing, directs the CEO to perform.
The purpose of the Medicare Australia (Functions of Chief Executive Officer) Amendment Direction 2007 (No. 2) (the Direction) is for the Minister for Human Services to confer a function on the Chief Executive Officer of Medicare Australia (CEO of Medicare Australia) to enter into a contract with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to provide services for carrying out the UHI program and to scope, develop, build and test a UHI program system in accordance with the contract.
In February 2006, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed funding for the development of a single national approach to identifying individuals and healthcare providers for healthcare purposes. This funding has been provided to NEHTA to establish Unique Healthcare Identifiers (UHIs) for each individual, healthcare provider and healthcare organisation in Australia.
The UHI program is being developed to support progress toward the proposed establishment of a national Shared Electronic Health Records System. One of the key building blocks to enabling access to a system of electronic health records is to establish a means for uniquely identifying consumers and health professionals. This will reduce the possibility of information being sent to the wrong health professional or being assigned to the wrong consumer.
COAG funding to NEHTA for the development and implementation of UHIs was premised on leveraging Medicare Australia’s infrastructure, including the Consumer Directory Management System (CDMS) to establish individual healthcare identifiers (IHIs) for consumers and the Provider Directory System (PDS) for data to establish the identifiers for healthcare providers (HPIs).
Medicare Australia received a ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) (on a single source provider basis) from NEHTA to provide a scoping, development and operational response.
This Direction provides that the CEO of Medicare Australia may enter into a contract with NEHTA to provide services relating to the UHI program and may scope, develop, build and test a UHI program system in accordance with the contract.
Details of Direction
Section 1 – Name of Direction
This section provides for the Amending Direction to be named the “Medicare Australia (Functions of Chief Executive Officer) Amendment Direction 2007 (No. 2)”.
Section 2 – Commencement
This section provides for the Amending Direction to commence on the day after it is registered as a legislative instrument.
Section 3 – Amendment of Medicare Australia (Functions of Chief Executive Officer) Direction 2005
This section provides that the Medicare Australia (Functions of the Chief Executive Officer) Direction 2005 (the Direction) is amended as set out in Schedule 1.
Schedule 1 – Amendments
Item [1] - After section 34
This item inserts a new section 35 into the Direction.
This section at subsection 35(1) defines certain terms used in the Amendment Direction.
Subsection 35(2) provides that the CEO may undertake the work in relation to the UHI program in that it confers on the CEO the function to:
(a) enter into a contract with NEHTA for Medicare Australia to provide services relating to the UHI program, and
(b) to scope, develop, build and test the UHI program system in accordance with the contract mentioned in paragraph (a).
Subsection 35(2), at paragraph 35(2)(c), confers a function on the CEO to:
(a) copy personal information from nominated Medicare Australia databases;
(b) apply a process to that copied personal information to create new data that cannot be used to identify the individuals to whom it relates; and
(c) to use the created data;
to perform the functions provided under paragraph 35(2)(b).
Subsection 35(3) provides that Medicare Australia’s ability to perform its obligations under the contract mentioned in paragraph 35(2)(a) is limited to scoping, developing, building and testing the UHI program system.
Consultation
The Direction was settled after consultation with the Department of Health and Ageing and the Department of Human Services.
The Direction is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.