Federal Government: Healthcare Identifiers Bill passed by Senate

The Federal Government has successfully navigated its Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and the Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010 through the Senate. The bills permit e-health authority NeHTA and Medicare Australia to begin assigning the unique, 16-digit individual healthcare identifiers (IHI) to each member of the Australian public. More information is available at www.ehealthinfo.gov.au or www.medicare.gov.au