> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, 18 August 2006 12:46 PM
> > I don't understand. Why can't you get an individual digital > > certificate from HeSA? What are you lacking? > Well, VR ;-) There is good news and bad news, my friend! The good news is that Medicare Australia wants every provider whose patients claim on Medicare to get digital certificates, because this will enable Medicare to receive those claims in the most efficient way, that is electronically. Just to make absolutely sure that, I have phoned HeSA and confirmed with them that they will issue digital certificates free of charge to anybody working in the health professions, including non-VR GPs. The bad news is that nobody apart from Medicare cares whether you have an individual digital certificate or whether you use it, and as we have been said in previous messages, even Medicare cares so little that it is ignoring the fact that hundreds or thousands of doctors are sending referrals and other clinical messages that are encrypted (which is all that doctors care about) but which have not been signed with an individual digital certificate. So, in summary: 1. As a non-VR GP, you can get digital certificates from HeSA the same as everybody else; 2. The only certificate that you may need to get is a location certificate, rather than an individual one. (You need to remember that if you ask people to encrypt messages to you with your individual public key rather than your practice's location public key, nobody else in your practice will be able to read those messages, which could have serious legal consequences if you are away and others in your practice couldn't read an urgent or important message about a patient.) Oliver Frank, general practitioner 255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens South Australia 5086 Ph. 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
