In addition to the major issue described below, we now find that Argus
healthcare clients who dont have a Medicare provider number will be
required to revert to the old '100 point check and administrative time
delays' to get certificates. (For the past 6 months HeSA has allowed
ArgusConnect to issue pre-allocated 'encryption-only' certificates; a
process that was simple and quick.)
Thankfully, those healthcare workers with provider numbers should be
able to just apply with a simple 'one page' form and get the cert back
by return mail ( ;-) ). (We will be encouraging the 26 Divisions who
are working on Argus deployment projects to just arrange applications by
their members in one massive wave)
From now on ArgusConnect wont be able to shield clients from the burden
of application process and get certificate to clients quickly overnight
as we have done up to now. In fact, with the process now being proposed
by Medicare, we will revert to the process that proved absolutely
unsatisfactory in the past. ie doctors will need to apply on their own
behalf, they will forget to get this happening, we will then be delayed
in our installation process, we wont know when a practice has received
their certificate and passwords in the mail, we will find scheduling
installations a nightmare and it will all become too hard for doctors.
Unless this is significantly smartened up I believe that ArgusConnect
will be forced to provide an optional alternative PKI process for
situations where Medicare Australia certificates are just too hard or
cumbersome to arrange.
-------------------------------
Ross Davey
CEO
ArgusConnect Pty Ltd
Ph: 03 5335 2220
Mob: 0417 548608
Web: www.argusconnect.com.au
-------------------------------
Ross Davey wrote:
Government Drops the Ball on Healthcare e-security
________________________________________
* *
Since the moving of Medicare Australia away from the health portfolio
into the Human Services portfolio, we have been told that support for
development, deployment and technical support for use of PKI in the
health sector has been dropped for any applications other than those
that support Medicare-related business.
I am told that Medicare Australia no longer will invest resources in
supporting the use of their PKI infrastructure for strictly
healthcare-related applications. Medicare will simply concentrate on
use of PKI for Medicare ‘core business’; which is interpreted to mean
insurance-related applications.
This leaves initiatives that have adopted HeSA PKI for security in
clinical areas out in the cold and largely unsupported both
technically and strategically.
HeSA, the organisation that established an infrastructure for
deploying PKI certificates, certificate tokens and also negotiated and
oversaw the Certification Authorities and registration process, has
been absorbed back into Medicare Australia and told to focus on ‘core
business’.
There are quite a number of initiatives around Australia that have
adopted HeSA’s PKI technology in healthcare environments on the
understanding that this would be the anointed mechanism for encrypting
health data and for applying digital signing. They now find that
unless the application is related to Medicare claiming, their
initiatives are receiving minimal support, they cant get answers to
important and urgent technical matters, and they cant be assured that
the infrastructure will continue to be provided.
-------------------------------
Ross Davey
CEO
ArgusConnect Pty Ltd
Ph: 03 5335 2220
Mob: 0417 548608
Web: www.argusconnect.com.au
-------------------------------
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