My Health Account new feature – website and newsletter content for general practice teams February 2022 Content for sector and association e-newsletters My Health Account to release new feature to support more health consumers to create an account My Health Account is a Ministry of Health service that helps people create their digital health identity. Digital Identity is used to prove who you are so you can securely gain access to online health services. Health consumers create a My Health Account to access My Covid Record and get a copy of their My Vaccine Pass. Some health consumers are not able to create their My Health Account as they do not have any of the documents needed to verify their identity. We want to help around 300,000 My Health Account holders who are in this position and would like some support from general practice teams. From later in February 2022, health consumers who are enrolled with their general practice team will be able to confirm their identity by allowing My Health Account to attempt to match their NHI to the mobile telephone details held on the National Enrolment Service. Once an NHI match is made, people will be able to receive a one-time code on their mobile phone to create their My Health Account. This will enable them to gain access to My Covid Record, My Vaccine Pass, and other future online health services. Most people’s contact details will be up to date. For people who don’t often visit their general practice team, they may need to get in touch by telephone or email to update their details.
Things to consider before updating a person’s contact details General practice teams may have their own policies and practices to mitigate the risk of identity theft or people registering with false information in order to obtain prescription drugs. General practice teams normally confirm a person’s identity by: 1. asking them to provide the email address held on record by the general practice team 2. asking them to provide their NHI number 3. asking them to provide the contact mobile phone number held on record by the general practice team (noting that this is the detail that may be out of date) 4. asking them to answer a question that only they would know, such as: a. “Please tell us the details of any repeat prescriptions that you have” or b. “Please tell us if you have had a lab test within the last six months and, if yes, what it was for”. Name, address, mobile phone number, and email address details should only be updated once the person’s identity has been confirmed. Anyone over 12 years of age can create a My Health Account. If contacted by 12 to 15-year-olds, it is common for general practice administrators to ask to speak to the young person’s guardian (the