Draft laws would mandate uploading pathology and imaging results to My Health Record unless patients objected or doctors decided it would jeopardise patient safety or wellbeing.

The proposed ‘sharing by default’ legislation will allow allow Medicare to claw back rebates from pathology or imaging companies that fail to comply.

Health officials also claim that patients will collectively save $27 million to $53 million a year when counting the ‘opportunity cost’ of unnecessary GP appointments to redo tests.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler introduced the bill last week, with plans to start the new regime in mid-2025.