In September, Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim ordered the Professional Services Review (PSR) to make changes, finding it had breached the Data Protection Act by merging Medicare claims and pharmaceutical benefits data; however, a Senate committee is now calling for changes to PSR legislation to allow the merger, reports The Australian. The Senate Committee, after an inquiry into PSR procedures, recommends Medicare publish its auditing methodology and improve communications regarding policy changes and that the commonwealth allow for greater flexibility in PSR legislation. While Medicare says it relies on data mining in order to discover fraud, some doctors claim "the processes were deficient and led to unjust outcomes." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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