Aus Govt looks to outsource e-health record management

The Department of Health and Ageing has gone to tender for an organisation to support the operation of the Personally-Controlled E-Health Record (PCEHR) system.

The Federal Government's e-health record system was launched on 1 July after two years of planning and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment. Although it hasn't been a smooth start for the program, over 3500 people have so far registered for their own e-health record.

The request for tender document, published yesterday, calls for a company to manage the running of the system for just under two years, to at least the end of June in 2014 and starting as soon as the contract is awarded. Up until this point, the government has been managing the operation of the system.

The tender documents state that the government will provide AU$161.6 million over the next two years to operate the PCEHR system and support its enhancement and adoption.

The system operator role will be required to oversee procurement, contract management, project governance, budgeting, monitoring, change management, business systems analysis and overall operations management.

The tender calls for at least eight personnel to oversee the management of the PCEHR system.

Yesterday, the department also announced that Ernst & Young had received AU$580,000 for a two-month extension of its external delivery assurance contract for the PCEHR program.

The Council of Australian Governments met yesterday, and it was expected that the meeting would discuss the continuation of funding for the PCEHR initiative from the states, as the existing e-health partnership ran out on 30 June. However, there was no mention of e-health in the communiqué from the meeting.