The Practice Incentives Program e-Health Incentive is an Australian government initiative to encourage the uptake of e-health technologies in all general practices, and has components that practices need to meet in order to qualify for payments through this incentive. One of the elements of the incentive is related to NEHTA and a secure messaging requirement. As technology continues to emerge, practices will be able to:

• securely exchange information such as discharge summaries, pathology reports and specialist reports electronically
• send electronic referrals, pathology orders and participate in electronic prescribing

Patient information sent and received electronically will also be able to be added directly into a patient's electronic health record. The PIP is administered by Medicare Australia on behalf of the Australian Government's Department of Health and Ageing.

NEHTA invites medical software industry suppliers to participate in a consultation program to develop the secure messaging specifications and compliance requirements for PIP. Refer to the Documents & Presentations link to the left for details on past sessions.

NEHTA looks forward to working with the medical software industry.

Practice eligibility for the PIP e-Health Incentive requires confirmation that the practice has established a secure messaging capability utilising a product that complies with the NEHTA specifications for secure messaging.

To confirm eligibility a practice simply needs to check the Eligible Suppliers link to ascertain whether their software supplier is listed as an eligible supplier.

Health Providers should continue to channel enquiries to Medicare regarding the PIP e-Health Incentive. More information on the PIP e-Health Incentive guidelines are available at Medicare Australia.

In order for a supplier to ensure their products are listed as PIP-eligible they will be required to submit a statement of commitment to NEHTA. NEHTA will be working with medical software industry vendors through a consultation program to develop the secure messaging specifications and compliance requirements for the Practice Incentives Program.

NEHTA looks forward to working with the medical software industry in supporting this important initiative. Should you wish to register interest in these upcoming events please contact NEHTA at 1300 901 001 or email your enquiries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also subscribe to the NEHTA RSS for all notifications and alerts.

Secure Message Delivery Specifications

The documents which describe the Secure Messaging Delivery, Web Services Profile and the XML Secure Payload profile specifications are now Technical Specifications published by Standards Australia. The Endpoint Location Service specification is now a Technical Report also published by Standards Australia.

These documents are no longer available from the NEHTA website but can be downloaded for free from the SAI Global website.

The Standards Australia document references are;

• ATS 5820:2010 E-health Web Services Profile
• ATS 5821:2010 E-health XML Secure Payload Profiles
• ATS 5822:2010 E-health Secure Message Delivery
• TR 5823:2010 Endpoint Location Service

The secure messaging element of the PIP e-Health Incentive has been developed in consultation with NEHTA and aligns with the directions set out in the Australian Government's National e-Health Strategy

Practice eligibility for the PIP e-Health Incentive will require confirmation that the practice has established a secure messaging capability utilising a product that complies with the NEHTA specifications for secure messaging. To confirm eligibility, a practice will need to check the Compliant Suppliers link to ascertain whether their software supplier is listed as an eligible supplier.

In order for a Supplier to ensure their products are listed as PIP-eligible they will be required to submit a statement of commitment to NEHTA. NEHTA will be working with medical software industry vendors through a consultation program to develop the secure messaging specifications and compliance requirements for the Practice Incentives Program.

Secure Message Delivery Specifications

The documents which describe the Secure Messaging Delivery, Web Services Profile and the XML Secure Payload profile specifications are now Technical Specifications published by Standards Australia. The Endpoint Location Service specification is now a Technical Report also published by Standards Australia.

These documents are no longer available from the NEHTA website but can be downloaded for free from the SAI Global website.

The Standards Australia document references are;

• ATS 5820:2010 E-health Web Services Profile
• ATS 5821:2010 E-health XML Secure Payload Profiles
• ATS 5822:2010 E-health Secure Message Delivery
• TR 5823:2010 Endpoint Location Service