[LINK] SMH: 'Medicare online'
Roger Clarke
Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Tue Aug 21 13:49:53 AEST 2007
[Comments embedded and at the end]
Medicare online
The Sydney Morning Herald (*article* not online though)
21 August 2007
The federal Government will spend $25 million over three years
developing electronic health records [sic!] that will allow consumers
to view their Medicare rebates online and check how much they have
spent on medication.
"Patients will have secure access via the internet [sic] to a full
record of their Medicare rebates", Health Minister Tony Abbott said
yesterday.
"Within 12 months there will be similar arrangements to allow online
patients access to their (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) claims
history".
As part of the online health initiative, the Government would also
roll out an electronic health record in remote indigenous towns to
ensure the health problems of Aboriginal children were addressed.
[sic - accessibility of a record is a mere fraction of what's needed
to "ensure" health problems are addressed]
[The conflation of health insurance with health care is a blatant
misrepresentation.
[The Medicare mandarins tried to bring you the Australia Card. They
fought for years to get the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as a step
along the way to becoming the central health care database. They
have an appalling record in relation to privacy (but fortunately also
in relation to eBusiness), and shouldn't be let anywhere near genuine
health care data.
[The strangeness is confounded by the Health Minister announcing
something that's squarely in the Human Services portfolio. My guess
is that Medicare has applied for and got some funding out of the
Health Dept that was earmarked for projects in the health care
records area - but I stress that's an unresearched stab in the dark.
My spare time is fully occupied chasing more important
privacy-invasion rabbits down other holes.]
[Note that a lot of Medicare data is '10-minute consultation' stuff.
But some of it is tightly or moderately condition-specific and hence
much more sensitive (e.g. D&C, visit to an STD clinic).
[PBS data is dynamite from a privacy perspective, because the vast
majority of prescribed pharmaceuticals these days are
condition-specific, so much more is disclosed than just the
prescription.]
[Online authentication has been a graveyard for a decade, and doesn't
look like improving anytime soon. So it doesn't take a very clever
person to predict that there will be some very serious problems with
these projects.
--
Roger Clarke http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre Uni of NSW
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