NASH and Web Services
National Authentication Service for Health
National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) provides Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates which help healthcare organisations and individuals to:
- Access the My Health Record system
- Access the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service
- Send and receive messages securely using software that meets the requirements of Secure Message Delivery
- Access the NASH PKI directory - which lists healthcare providers and supporting organisations with an active NASH PKI certificate
- Use Electronic Prescribing
As of 24 March 2024, NASH SHA-1 certificates or Medicare PKI certificates no longer support connections to the HI service or My Health Record system. All software that connect with these systems require a NASH SHA-2 certificate.
NASH certificates have a two year expiry date and will need to be renewed before they expire to allow your healthcare providers to continue using functions like My Health Record, electronic prescribing and secure messaging.
For information on how to request or renew your NASH PKI certificate visit the Agency's webpage or contat your Primary Care Engagement Officer.
Web Services
Web Services compatible software now must be used to access each of the following digital health and aged care channels:
- Medicare Online, including Department of Veterans’ Affairs
- Australian Immunisation Register
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Online
- ECLIPSE
- Aged Care Web Services
Why are we moving to Web Services?
Web Services is a technology that is used over the internet so that health professionals can securely share data with Services Australia. PKI certificates will be replaced with a new authentication system known as Provider Digital Access (PRODA). This is an online system that verifies each person’s identity and organisation using the Australian Business Register. Some of the advantages to PRODA include:
- a higher level of security than PKI certificates.
- Individual PRODA accounts will never expire. If you are a health professional and you change employers, your PRODA account will remain the same because it belongs to you as an individual.
- It’s portable and compatible with a range of different devices and systems.
- PRODA does not require additional hardware or software, unlike PKI certificates.
To ensure your practice is not impacted by this change it is important you upgrade to a version of your software that supports Web Services. This will vary with each software provider, so we recommend contacting your software provider and ask when you can expect your practice software to be Web Services ready.
Resources
