Deadline to opt out of My Health Record extended

THE deadline to opt out of the federal government’s My Health Record system has been pushed back again, to the end of January next year.

An online summary of each person’s health information will automatically be created for all Australians as of January 31 unless they choose to opt out beforehand.

The opt-out period began on July 16 and was supposed to end on October 15, but was extended to Friday, November 15 following considerable criticism of the system.

It was extended again by three months following government negotiations with the Senate crossbench.

Criticisms of My Health Record include that it cannot be relied upon as a clinical record, it creates a security risk, it has privacy implications, and that the scheme should have asked people to opt in instead of opt out.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said legislation just passed by the Senate also included tougher penalties for those that misuse the system, strengthened provisions to safeguard against domestic violence, prohibited employers from requesting and using health information from an individual’s My Health Record, and that no health information or de-identified data would be released to insurers.

“The Senate has also passed amendments that law enforcement agencies can only access a person’s My Health Record with a warrant or court order, and anyone who chooses to cancel a record at any time will have that record permanently deleted.”

He said more than six million Australians already had a My Health Record – of which people can opt into or opt out of at any time in their lives – and more than 14,000 healthcare professional organisations were connected.

“There has never been a reported security breach of the system.”

Labor was pushing for a one-year extension to the deadline, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the Coalition had “ignored all the experts” and tried to rush the rollout of My Health Record.

“We’ve got more than a million Australians who have now opted out.

“The reality is the My Health Record website just went into meltdown as people tried to work out how they opt out of the scheme.”