My Health Record gets another $200m

The federal government will spend another $200 million to continue Australia’s controversial My Health Record system next year.

With around 90 percent of the population having recently entered the scheme, the government has committed its first funding to the national e-health records system since 2017-18.

It follows the end of a protracted opt-out period that was extended following concerns from key stakeholders including the Australian Medical Association.

The six-month window saw over 2.5 million Australian's - or around 10 percent of eligible individuals - opt-out of the scheme.

The system, which has been operating since 2011, last received $387 million in 2017-18 to fund the policy switch from an opt-in to opt-out approach, which had been slated since 2015.

While 2019-20 budget documents are scant on detail, the new funding can be expected to continue the day-to-day operations of the system provided by the Department of Human Services.

The funding could be used to continue and progress discussions around the proposed replatforming of the system.

Last year the Australian Digital Health Agency began talks with infrastructure provider Accenture on the replatforming ahead of the expiry of the existing multi-million dollar deal.

This is partly intended to reduce costs, with replatforming to an open source, cloud-based environment already on the cards.