The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has developed new resources to assist medical patients protect their privacy when activating their My Health Records for the first time.
In a statement, the OAIC said many Australians would activate their My Health Records when next they visit their doctor or healthcare professional.
“At that time their record will be automatically populated with Medicare information, including two years of claims data, unless they have already set up their preferences and privacy controls,” the OAIC said.
“Registered healthcare providers involved in their care will also be able to access their record.”
The Office said everyone should be aware that sharing their My Health Record was their choice.
“The OAIC has released new resources to help inform people about how they can take additional steps to protect their privacy when using the My Health Record system.”
It said they can use access settings to control which healthcare provider organisations can see their record, set a record access code to restrict access, or remove certain providers.
It said patients could control what information could be viewed by restricting access to certain documents, asking a healthcare professional not to add documents, or removing documents.
“They can also monitor which organisations access their record through their access history and by setting up an alert to let them know whenever a new provider logs in,” The OAIC said.
“If they have a My Health Record, they can choose to permanently delete it at any time.”
The new OAIC resources can be accessed at this PS News link.
