Online Technical Support (OTS) and Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment notifications

Scheduled maintenance to the Health Systems Developer Portal and Developer Testing Support System

Added: 23 January 2025

Services Australia advises that due to scheduled maintenance, the Health Systems Developer Portal and Developer Testing Support System will be unavailable between approximately 8:00pm 8 February 2025 and 4:00am 9 February 2025 (AEDT).

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you have any questions about this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected] .

Online Technical Support (OTS) and Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment availability for Australia Day - Holiday

Added: 23 January 2025 

Please be advised that the Software Vendor Technical Support, Product Integration and Developer Liaison teams will be unavailable on Monday 27 January 2025 due to the Australia Day public holiday. The Software Vendor Technical Support phone number, 1300 550 115, will be diverted to the on-call number for critical production issues only.

The vendor environment will be available but unsupported. Any technical issues that arise will be investigated the next business day.

Should you have any queries regarding this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected].

Scheduled outage to vendor environment – 22 January 2025 

Added: 22 January 2025 

Services Australia advises that due to scheduled maintenance, there will be an outage to the vendor environment between approximately 8.00pm-10.00pm (AEDT) on Wednesday 22 January 2025.

This will affect PRODA, Medicare, ECLIPSE, Australian Immunisation Register, Aged Care, PBS Online and HI Services in the vendor environment.

The Health Systems Developer Portal and Developer Testing Support System will be unavailable during this period. 

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you have any questions about this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected].

Action required: Feedback Survey for Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service updates to functionality 

Added: 15 January 2025 

Services Australia has introduced changes to the HI Service to support the improvement of match rates for Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI). These two changes have not been turned on in production but have been available in the HI Service vendor test environment (SVT) from 23 November 2024. 

The changes include:

• Search IHI - IRN will be mandatory when a Medicare Card is used as the search criteria for an IHI.
• Search IHI - Retired Status will be returned with an informational message if a unique match is found for a consumer with that status. 
  • In addition to the informational message, if the HI Service finds a match to the IHI record with a ‘Retired’ status, the HI Service will return informational message (#02270) with the IHI details depending on configuration. 

To ensure minimal impact for software developers and their customers prior to implementation, we are inviting developers to test in SVT and complete the short survey with any impacts. Once any issues or concerns have been received about the changes, Services Australia and the Australian Digital Health Agency will work with industry to determine the most appropriate time to implement these changes in the production environment. 

Software developers are encouraged to utilise these enhancements to the HI Service and requested to provide feedback specific to your product before 28 February 2025 through the survey link. 

Planned maintenance to the My Health Record system Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment 

Added: 8 January 2025 

The My Health Record System Operator advises there will be planned maintenance to the My Health Record system Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment on Wednesday, 22 January 2025 from 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM (AEDT). The SVT environment will be unavailable for a small portion of this window to deployment patches to address security vulnerabilities that needs to be addressed within 48 hours.

As part of this maintenance, patches will be deployed to the Oracle HTTP Server to maintain the security posture of the MHR system. The patch release notes from Oracle do not suggest that there will be any impact to vendors, however there is still a risk that these patches may impact how vendors interact with the My Health Record system. Therefore, it is recommended that vendors perform connectivity testing in SVT on Thursday, 23 January 2025 by 2 PM (AEDT).

This environment upgrade is outside of the advertised available hours for the SVT environment. The System Operator apologies for any inconvenience this will cause.

Contact [email protected] for further advice about this message if necessary. For technical support please contact [email protected].

Services Australia advice: SHA-2 OCA renewal release 

Added: 8 January 2025

We’ve scheduled the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-2 Organisation Certificate Authority (OCA) renewal release for 18 January 2025, which will run for approximately 24-48 hours. 

What you need to know

In October 2026, the SHA-2 OCA used to issue NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates will expire.

• We’re renewing the SHA-2 OCA and will be deploying it in the production environment 18 January 2025.
• A test NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate has been made available in the vendor test environment to provide all software vendors the opportunity to undertake compatibility testing.
• All software must support NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates issued by both the expiring and the new SHA-2 OCA.
• Software vendors are not required to undertake a new Notice of Connection test.

NASH chain of trust rollout

From 18 January 2025, an updated chain of trust will be bundled with all NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates issued. This bundle will include both the old and the new SHA-2 OCA certificates. Most software will automatically install the new chain of trust when installing a new NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate.

For software systems that don’t automatically install the chain of trust from the NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate bundle, we recommend manually rolling out the chain of trust to your sites. From 18 January 2025, the updated chain of trust will be available as a separate download on the Certificates Australia website www.certificates-australia.com.au. Due to technical constraints, we’re unable to provide the updated chain of trust prior to commencing production use of the new OCA.

We’ll send our next update on 17 January 2025.

Decommissioning of Transport Layer Security (TLS) versions 1.0 and 1.1 in production environment

Added: 8 January 2025 

The Australian Digital Health Agency will be decommissioning the Transport Layer Security (TLS) versions 1.0 and 1.1 from 30 March 2025. After this date, any attempts to connect using these versions will be declined.

What is changing 

Communications to and from My Health Record will no longer be possible with TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1.

Currently, TLS version 1.2 is approved for systems connecting to the My Health Record system, and earlier versions must be disabled as soon as practical, support for TLS v1.0 and v1.1 will also be removed following the 30 March 2025 cut off.

This requirement is detailed in the Security Requirements for  My Health Record Connecting Systems - Security Conformance Profile v1.0 (Document ID: DH-3981:2024). 

Required Actions 

For anyone using versions lower than TLS v1.2 the following actions are required:

• Updating software used with My Health Record.
• Changing configuration settings to enable TLS v1.2 and optionally TLS v1.3 and disable TLS v1.0 and/or TLS v1.1.
• Making infrastructure changes to IT systems.
• Taking additional actions by your customers.

Additional support

Please contact the Agency if you need documentation or instructions to assist users of your software on how to remove or disable TLS v1.0/1.1 and use or update to TLS v1.2.

If you have any questions or require more information about this notice, please email [email protected]

Services Australia advice: Online Technical Support (OTS) and Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment availability for Christmas and New Year 2024/2025 

Added: 6 December, 2024

Please be advised of the following arrangements for the Online Technical Support (OTS) teams, the Software Vendor Test (SVT) environment, the Health Systems Developer Portal (the portal) and the Developer Testing Support System (DTSS) during the Christmas and New Year period:

OTS teams
The Product Integration, Technical Support Desk and Developer Liaison teams will be unavailable as of COB Monday 23 December 2024 and will return Thursday 2 January 2025.

The OTS Support Desk phone number 1300 550 115 will be diverted to the on-call number for critical production issues only.

SVT environment, portal and DTSS
Please refer to the table below:

Any technical issues that arise in the SVT, portal or DTSS will be addressed from Thursday 2 January 2025.

Should you have any queries regarding this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected].

Online Technical Support would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family all the best for this holiday season!

Services Australia advice: Scheduled outage to vendor environment – 26 November 2024

Added: 21 November, 2024

Services Australia advises that due to scheduled maintenance, there will be an outage to the vendor environment between approximately 8.00pm-10.00pm on Tuesday 26 November 2024 (AEDT).

The Health Systems Developer Portal, Developer Testing Support System and PRODA vendor environment will be unavailable during this period. 

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you have any questions about this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected].

Services Australia advice: HI Service updates to functionality

Added: 22 November, 2024

From 22 November 2024, the following changes will be available in the HI Service vendor environment.

• Search IHI - IRN will be mandatory for a Medicare Card Search.
• Search IHI - Retired Status will be returned with an informational message if a unique match is found for a consumer with that status. In addition to the informational message, if the HI Service finds a match to the IHI record with a ‘Retired’ status, the HI Service will return informational message (#02270) with the IHI details depending on the configuration.

Software developers are encouraged to utilise these enhancements to the HI Service, providing feedback specific to your product before 31 January 2025 through the below survey.

Link: Software developer information session feedback survey

Services Australia advice: SHA-2 OCA renewal release

Added: 24 October, 2024

We’ve scheduled the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-2 Organisation Certificate Authority (OCA) renewal release for 2 November 2024, which will run for approximately 24-48 hours. 

To ensure you have a smooth transition, you need to complete your compatibility testing by 1 November 2024 prior to the release.

What you need to know

In October 2026, the SHA-2 OCA used to issue NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates will expire.

• We’re renewing the SHA-2 OCA and will be deploying it in the production environment 2 November 2024.
• A test NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate has been made available in the vendor test environment to provide all software vendors the opportunity to undertake compatibility testing.
• All software must support NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates issued by both the expiring and the new SHA-2 OCA.
• Software vendors are not required to undertake a new Notice of Connection test.

NASH chain of trust rollout

From 2 November 2024, an updated chain of trust will be bundled with all NASH SHA-2 PKI certificates issued. This bundle will include both the old and the new SHA-2 OCA certificates. Most software will automatically install the new chain of trust when installing a new NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate.

For software systems that don’t automatically install the chain of trust from the NASH SHA-2 PKI certificate bundle, we recommend manually rolling out the chain of trust to your sites. From 2 November 2024, the updated chain of trust will be available as a separate download on the Certificates Australia website www.certificates-australia.com.au. Due to technical constraints, we’re unable to provide the updated chain of trust prior to commencing production use of the new OCA.

We’ll send our next update on 1 November 2024.

Services Australia advice: HI Service licensed material updates

Added: 16 October, 2024

On 1 June 2024, the Healthcare Identifier (HI) Service enhanced the functionality of Search IHI and Update IHI web services.

The WSDLs have now been updated and are available for download from the Healthcare Identifiers Service tile in the Health Systems Developer Portal.

Additionally, further changes have been made to the HI Service - Services Catalogue.      
       
The additional changes can be found in Appendix 4 – B2B Authentication Requirements by Role

Services Australia advice: HI Service licensed material updates 

Added: 24 September, 2024

On 1 June 2024, the Healthcare Identifier (HI) Service enhanced the functionality of Search IHI and Update IHI web services. 

• Search IHI web services (TECH.SIS.HI.06, 12 & 30) were updated to include search by Mobile Number or Email Address.
• Update IHI web service (TECH.SIS.HI.05) was updated to include Update IHI for Additional Name, Alternate Date of Birth and Electronic Communications.

The following HI Service guides were updated as part of the June release:

• HI Service- Change Guide      
• HI Service - Developers Guide
• HI Service - IHI Searching Guide
• HI Service - Services Catalogue

In September 2024,  a change was made to a country code. 

• TECH.SIS.HI.02 was updated to reflect the change of country code 4202 from Gaza Strip and West Bank to Occupied Palestinian Territories.
• The HI Service Change Guide was also updated.

HI Service software developers do not need to make changes to their products as a result of these updates. There is no requirement to undertake NOC or conformance testing as a result of these updates.

Please access the HI Services licensed material via the Health Systems Developer Portal for more information.

When logging in to the Services Australia portal on or after Sunday 12 May 2024, all users will be required to:

All portal users will be required to accept the Terms and Conditions for use of the Portal when logging in to the portal for the first time on or after Sunday 12 May 2024. If your organisation details are not displayed when logging in to the portal for the first time on or after Sunday 12 May 2024, logging out and logging back in again should resolve this issue.

When logging in to the portal on or after Sunday 12 May 2024, all users will be required to:

• Reset their password using the ‘Forgot Password’ link. 

• Accept the Terms and Conditions for use of the Portal.

If your organisation details are not displayed when logging in to the portal for the first time on or after Sunday 12 May 2024, logging out and logging back in again should resolve this issue.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you have any questions about this advice please contact the Developer Liaison team at [email protected].