It is a matter of Medicare 'Regulation' rather than 'legislation'.
The legislation that is relevant is the 'Evidence Act' which defines
what is legally required as a signature to support legal processes, and
the Medicare Act which gives Medicare the authority to dictate issues
related to Medicare claiming etc.
However it is the Medicare regulations that dictate that referrals must
be signed for the services to attract Medicare benefit. (Regulations
have considerable legal power because Medicare is entitled to do it).
So Medicare require to identify the practitioner who has referred the
service and they specify that this must be a signature. Hence the
Evidence Act kicks in because that specifies that individual digital
signatures are required to provide the authentication and
non-repudiation required to identify the person adequately.
-------------
Now the implementation of the individual certificate signing is another
thing.
We are tussling with this at present for first implementation in
Northern Territory and one of the questions we are grappling with is
'how do you provide the recipient with enough assurance that the
documnet has been legitimately signed? Show an icon to indicate this?
Allow him/her to access a special authentication browser if he/she has
any doubts about the signature? Just not worry because it is Medicare's
problem. Let them check if they want to? etc etc
We are quickly forming an opinion.
regards
Ross Davey
ArgusConnect
Tony Lembke wrote:
Does anyone know if the federal legislation has been changed such that
digitally signed and delivered referral letters are adequate to
satisfy Medicare requirements?
If so, do we know the signing requirements?
Thanks,
Tony Lembke
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--
--------------------------------------------
Ross Davey
CEO
ArgusConnect
Ph: 03 5335 2220
Mob: 0417 548608
Web: www.argusconnect.com.au
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