Notice of Information Technology (IT) Requirements under the Electronic Transactions Act 1999
Medicare announced on Wednesday 11th November that they have adjusted their requirements for electronic referral.
The new guidelines make no mention of digital signatures (see below). Instead, they simply require that a "stored electronic transmission is unaltered and unalterable".
The good news is that GPs don’t need to digitally sign an electronic referral. They can simply encrypt and send it using their location certificate
Also see the Medicare Australia website: http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/business/online/referrals.jsp
