My medical record: clinics receiving up to $ 50,000 a year in incentives | Australia news



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Medical clinics have pocketed up to $ 50,000 a year in premium payments to enroll people in My Health Record, while patients have been registered without their informed consent.

Thursday was the deadline to withdraw from the program.

Physicians are eligible for payments of $ 6.50 per patient – capped at $ 12,500 per term – as part of the incentive program.

To receive payments, health care providers must meet five requirements, including the goal of downloading health summaries for some patients.

The former Health Minister, Sussan Ley, signed a rule in December 2015 stating that health care providers no longer needed to keep consent records as part of the "health and safety" process. badisted registration "of My health record.

Steve Hughes, a farmer from Macksville in northern New South Wales, said his medical clinic had acknowledged that he had put her on the registry without her consent.

He has since filed a complaint with the Australian Information Commissioner's Office, who told him that a more in-depth investigation was required. However, they will not be able to badign anyone to this file for four to five months.

"I'm very impressed. It's an invasion of privacy, "Hughes told The Guardian.

"It should not happen [the payment incentives.] If the program is worth it, people will sign up. "

Andrea Glazier, a Fremantle writer, explained that she had been trying to withdraw from the scheme for five months and that call center staff had told her that she could not afford it. help because she already had an account, which she did not know.

Previously, she had lived in Sydney and had used a doctor at Ambulatory Surgery Warringah in Brookvale. The clinic was contacted to find out if she had received any payments under the incentive program.

"I was a little confused," Glazier told The Guardian.

Despite numerous calls to the hotline and multiple badurances that a confirmation letter would be sent to him about the account being removed, Glazier still has no information on the status of his account.

"It's really a fiasco … it's a stupid energy to manage that," she said.

A Melbourne man in his mid-thirties, who did not want to be named, is also furious that his clinic has created him a record without his consent and could have benefited from the exercise. He is a patient of the Chapel Gate Medical Center.

"I was horrified because that would never have been something I would have agreed to," he told The Guardian.

The medical group MAACG, the parent company of the medical center, declined to say whether it was receiving an incentive bonus for signing patients on My Health Record.

Its chief executive, Trish Wilson, said in a statement that the clinic "was acting at all times in the best interest of patients and with their informed consent."

"The Chapel Gate Medical Center can not and would not comment on the treatment of a patient without the written consent of this patient," she said.

She stated that the center participated in the My Health Record program and complied with all legislative and professional standards.

The Privacy Foundation spokesman, Bernard Robertson-Dunn, said that patients could see a conflict of interest with the program of encouragement.

"This problem could have a negative impact on the trust between the patient and his GP," he said.

According to the Australian Digital Health Agency, 6,450,277 people were enrolled in My Health Record in mid-January.

A spokesman for the agency said that a health care provider "must obtain the patient's consent before registering it for My Health Record, otherwise it could violate the Privacy Act. 1988 (Cth) ".

"The registration process involves several steps that require the consent of the patient," he said.

The agency was not able to tell how many clinics were receiving incentive payments to enroll people in My Health Record or how much had been paid to date.

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