Submission to Senate Inquiry Health Legislation Amendment (Modernising My Health Record – Sharing by Default) Bill 2024 

The inquiry’s purpose is to gain inclusive community feedback on new rules which, if passed, would legislatively ensure that important health information would be electronically available for people with a My Health Record and their treating healthcare providers. Once sanctioned, the amendment would see the payment of Medicare rebates to healthcare providers, for specific health services (initially, pathology and diagnostic imaging test results) conditional upon the individual’s permission to upload information about those health services.

COTA Australia’s submission welcomes the mandated requirement that healthcare providers upload a person’s health information to their My Health Record. Currently, the Bill’s provisions are limited to reports on pathology and diagnostic imaging tests. We see this as opening the way for a more comprehensive implementation of the Bill’s provisions within the healthcare system in the future.

We applaud that the Bill reinforces the importance of the individual in deciding if their test results should be uploaded to their MHR. It clearly signals that each person is the owner of their healthcare information and maintains control over access.

The Australian Government has specified that information and education will be provided to healthcare providers to support these changes before they come into effect. We advocate that it is critical older people are part of this process.

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