My Health Record Expansion

11 Jul 2018 12:15 PMTandem Health
My Health Record Expansion

The My Health Record (MHR) expansion has begun. Soon a MHR will be automatically created for every Australian with a Medicare or DVA card unless you tell the Government that you don’t want one. To put it simply MHR was an opt-in process, however from July the program will be expanded to an opt-out participation model.

What is My Health Record?

MHR is an online summary of your key health information. More than 1 in 5 Australians already have one/ have opted to have one. Overtime, MHR aims to bring together health information such as medical conditions, medicines, allergies and test results in one place.

MHR is personally controlled, meaning it’s your choice who sees your MHR and what’s in it. You can choose to share your information with healthcare providers involved in your care.

MHR has various safeguards in place to protect your information including encryption, firewalls, anti-virus scanning, system monitoring, secure log in, authentication and audit logging. 
 

What’s included in a My Health Record

MHR brings together health information from you, your healthcare providers and Medicare. Clinical documents may include; an overview of your health uploaded by your Doctor (called a Shared Health Summary), hospital discharge summaries, reports from tests and scans, prescribed medications and referral letters. Medicare data can also be added to your record, for example; Medicare and PBS information stored by the Department of Human Services, organ donation decisions and immunisations that are included in the Australian Immunisation Register.

You or someone authorised to represent you can share additional information in your record that might be important including; contact numbers, emergency details, allergy information, current medicationsand Advance Care Plans etc.
 

How My Health Record can benefit you

  • Better connected care
  • Access to your key health information in an emergency
  • A convenient snapshot of your health
     

How do I access My Health Record?

Access to MHR is via your MyGov account.
 

What do I have to do if I don’t want a My Health Record automatically created?

If you are happy to have a MHR automatically created by the Government, you don’t need to do anything.

However, it’s important that if you don’t want a MHR automatically created for you that you let the Government know / opt-out by 31 january 2019 by:

Unfortunately your Doctor / the Surgery you visit is unable to opt you out from MHR as this process must be completed by the consumer/patient. However we are more than happy to provide information and resources about MHR.
 

What if I previously opted-in to have a My Health Record and I don’t want it anymore?

You can choose to cancel your record anytime. You can find the CANCEL MY HEALTH RECORD button under the PROFILE menu within your record via your MyGov account. Alternatively you can call the helpline on 1800 723 471.

For more information about MHR, privacy and security controls, nominating an authorised representative and setting access controls etc visit the MHR website www.myhealthrecord.gov.au