As followers of the evolving ePIP requirements for receipt of the Government e-Health Incentives will be aware there are 5 different capabilities a fully compliant system has to deliver for the clinician.
Here is a broad outline of the aspects covered:
eHealth Incentive Introduction
The eHealth incentive aims to encourage general practices to keep up to date with the latest developments in eHealth to assist in improving administration processes and enhancing the quality of patient care by, for example, by supporting the capacity to share accurate electronic patient records.
The Australian Government announced as part of the 2012-13 Budget that new PIP eHealth Incentive requirements had been developed in order to support the delivery of current eHealth initiatives particularly the personally controlled electronic health (eHealth) records system.
The new requirements and associated dates are:
Integrating Healthcare Identifiers into Electronic Practice Records | 1 February 2013 |
Secure Messaging | 1 February 2013 |
Data Records and Clinical Coding | 1 February 2013 |
Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions | 1 February 2013 |
PCEHR | 1 May 2013 |
The site is found here:
What is of interest today is e-prescribing - noting that this has to be in place in less than three months.
Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions
The practice software system must be able to send an electronic prescription to a Prescription Exchange Service (PES) operator for later retrieval by a dispenser at the time of dispensing.
Oddly there are no conformance requirements:
“The practice software system must be able to send an electronic prescription to a Prescription Exchange Service (PES) operator for later retrieval by a dispenser at the time of dispensing.
There are no current CCA software conformance requirements for practice systems for the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (ETP).
If your software product is able to send an electronic prescription to a PES operator you can complete the Declaration of Conformity form and request to be recorded in the PIP eHealth Product Register using the Registration page.”
As of 11/11/2012 there are 2 private (and presently non-interoperable) prescription exchanges operating (MediSecure and eRx) and no standards finalised on ETP.
You can read about what is expected here:
You can read all about the exchanges here:
and here:
Interestingly there are now suggestions that the private providers will be both paid for their transactions under arrangements with the pharmacists and also be what is needed to get the medical e-PIP payments through until June 2014.
Seems to me they will be so settled in by then they will become permanent way things are done in OZ.
This is a classic example of where DoHA and NEHTA leadership and governance have clearly failed. They have been mucking about will all this for close to a decade already.
I wonder when we will see full interoperability between the two exchanges, instigated by the private providers themselves I suspect, and hopefully supported by Government. It is about time if we are to get the benefits prescription exchange can offer.
I have yet to spot any announcements in this area - let me know if you have - and, as we know, the ETP Standards via Standards Australia are a little way off yet (to say the least) so no real early hope there.
David.