Recent Australian Government reforms aim to improve how health information is shared and accessed through My Health Record, supporting safer, more connected care—particularly in rural and remote settings.
Historically, not all key health information was required to be uploaded to My Health Record, leaving gaps in a patient's record.
The government's 'sharing by default' legislation aims to modernise healthcare, delivering more timely and comprehensive information for providers and consumers alike.
There are two key changes:
- Faster access
- Better access
Key Updates
- Health information will increasingly be shared by default through My Health Record as part of routine care, unless patients opt out.
- This supports improved continuity of care across providers, including virtual care, hospitals ACCHOs and general practice.
Faster access to results & reports
- Most pathology results and limb X-ray reports are available as soon as uploaded
- Available to patients to view in My Health Record or the 1800MEDICARE app
- For certain categories (including anatomical pathology, cytopathology and genetic tests) results and other X-ray and diagnostic imaging reports (for scans like CT, MRI and PET scans, mammograms and ultrasounds) are available to patients after a 5-day delay (reduced from the previous 7-day delay) regardless of test outcome*
- From 2026, most reports will be uploaded by default.
Impact: Faster follow-up, better-informed virtual care and reduced duplication.
* If there are multiple results in the same report, where different access timeframes apply, the 5-day delay period will apply to the entire report. Healthcare providers will continue to have access to all results as soon as they are uploaded.
Better Access initiative
- Most organisations that prepare written reports authored (or co-authored) by a pathologist or radiologist will be required to share these reports with My Health Record, from 1 July 2026.
- Currently, the requirement does not include images.
- In the future, other types of health information may be included in the upload mandate.
- There will be exceptions to mandatory uploading requirements, including
- where consumers or their representatives request that reports not be uploaded,
- where a reasonable concern for consumer, health, safety or wellbeing exists,
- where technical/system issues prevent upload,
- Evidence of exceptions must be retained for 2 years.
- Where an organisation is required to upload information to My Health Record by default and are not doing so – for example, because they have been granted an extension of time to comply – they must display a notice informing consumers of this.
- The notice must be visible at the provider’s premises and on their website. In addition, the notice must be displayed on any online platforms that consumers use to book appointments at the organisation. If the notice is not displayed, penalties may apply.
National Medicines Record
The Government is progressing a National Medicines Record, with initial changes by December 2026.
Key features:
- Will operate on the principle that complete medication management data is a non-negotiable component of clinical safety, capturing the full lifecycle of a script, from clinical reasoning at the point of prescribing to the dispensing event at the pharmacy.
- Mitigate risks from fragmented telehealth and virtual care services
- Vital for patients with complex needs who see multiple specialists or access virtual care services
- Enhance clinical oversight for General Practitioners providing a single source of truth.
- Enables clinical decision support software to more accurately ID drug interactions and therapeutic duplications.
Impact: improved medication safety, reduced duplication and better clinical decision-making.
Why this matters for rural doctors
These reforms support:
- safer prescribing and medication reconciliation
- better continuity across multiple providers
- improved telehealth care
- reduced information gaps in remote settings
