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 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
The transition from NASH SHA-1 to NASH SHA-2 Certificates occurred 13 March 2022, however if clinical software was not SHA-2 ready healthcare providers would have been unable to transition. Providers still using a SHA-1 have until 31 December 2022 to upgrade.
Check if your software is SHA-2 ready using the NASH SHA-2 Readiness Register.
To check what version of NASH certificate you have, an Organisation Maintenance Officer needs to log in to their individual PRODA account, then:
- Select Go to service on the HPOS tile. You may need to complete the linking process to proceed. Proceed as individual only
- Proceed to My programs.
- Select Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record
- Select Healthcare Identifiers - Manage existing records.
- Select My organisation details. If connected to multiple organisations you will first need to select the required organisation record.
- Select Certificates on this page. You will be able to see what certificates have been requested for your organisation, including the certificate type and expiry date.
For more information on how NASH works visit the ADHA website.
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.
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