Manage your My Health Record

When a My Health Record is created, the default privacy settings (called access controls) automatically let all healthcare providers involved in your care access your My Health Record and the documents in it.

A healthcare provider can search for and access your My Health Record by using personal details such as your name, date of birth and Medicare number.

However, you can control who has access to your My Health Record and what’s uploaded to it.

Access your My Health Record

Sign in to myGov to access your My Health Record.

Your My Health Record may also be accessed:

• by a nominated representative
• by an authorised representative
• in an emergency.

Nominated representative

You can choose to give another person access to your My Health Record, such as a family member or carer. When you nominate them, you can choose the type of access they have, which affects which records they can see.

Authorised representative

An authorised representative is a person who is assigned or nominated to act on behalf of another person to access and manage their My Health Record. For example, their child or a person who lacks capacity to control their own record.

Emergency access

In certain situations, emergency access can be granted to your My Health Record. This overrides your access control settings and allows your healthcare provider to view all your health information, including restricted documents.

Change who has access to your My Health Record

Your My Health Record access list shows which healthcare providers can and have accessed your record. To specify which providers can access your My Health Record and which documents they can see, log in to your My Health Record and then use the access controls.

You can only limit the access of the organisation supplying your care, not individual staff. For example, if you’re in hospital, you grant access to the hospital and its staff rather than an individual doctor.

Check who’s accessed your My Health Record

To check who’s accessed your My Health Record and what documents have been uploaded, log in to your My Health Record to view the access history.

You can request an email or text message be sent to you when:

• a healthcare provider opens your My Health Record for the first time
• a healthcare provider opens your My Health Record in an emergency
• a new shared health summary is uploaded to your My Health Record
• an advance care planning document is added, removed or reinstated
• a nominated representative opens your record
• someone new is able to access your My Health Record.

Change what’s uploaded to your My Health Record

You can ask your healthcare provider not to upload a document to your record. The provider must follow your request.

If a healthcare provider uploads a document and you’d like it removed, you can ask them to remove it or you can remove it yourself. The healthcare provider who originally uploaded the record will retain a copy on their local computer system.

When you remove a document, you or your healthcare provider can no longer view or access it. Depending on the document type, you may be able to reinstate it at a later date.

Once removed from your My Health Record, the document won’t be accessible in an emergency, so consider if it includes information that would be needed in an emergency.

Medicare information and your My Health Record

You can choose to include your Medicare information on your My Health Record. Unless you have logged into your record and set your preferences, your Medicare information will be automatically uploaded when your healthcare provider accesses your record for the first time. You can edit or remove Medicare information from your My Health Record at any time.

If you decide to include Medicare information on your My Health Record, it will be available to all healthcare providers, authorised representatives and nominated representatives who have access to your record, unless you limit their access.

Medicare information may include:

• details of claims made for Medicare benefits relating to health services covered under the Medicare Benefits Schedule or Department of Veterans Affairs entitlements
• details of claims made under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
• your organ donor status (from the Australian Organ Donation Register)
• immunisations that are included in the Australian Immunisation Register.

My Health Record for people under 18

If you are under 14 years old, your parent or guardian is an authorised representative and manages your record for you. They can access your record, see your tests and prescriptions, add and remove information and set access controls.

If you are aged between 14 and 17, you can manage your own My Health Record. Your parent or guardian will not have access to your My Health Record unless you make them a nominated representative.

More information for young people is available on the My Health Record website or phone their help line on 1800 723 471.