U.S. Senate Removes Ban That Has Kept a National Patient ID from Progressing
According to an Oct. 19 press release from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), PatientID Now applauds the U.S. Senate for removing the longstanding ban that stifles innovation around patient identification from its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill. PatientID Now is a coalition of healthcare organizations representing a wide range of healthcare stakeholders committed to advancing through legislation and regulations a nationwide strategy to address patient identification. The founding members of the Patient ID Coalition are the American College of Surgeons, AHIMA, College of Healthcare Information Management (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Intermountain Healthcare, and Premier.
The release from AHIMA states that “By joining the bipartisan movement to remove barriers to accurate patient identification, the Senate has taken a firm step towards protecting patient safety, patient privacy, and supporting efforts to address patient identification issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient ID Now has highlighted challenges caused by patient misidentification in the healthcare sector’s response to the pandemic. These challenges include thousands of duplicate records created during the vaccination registration process and disruptions in vaccine availability at provider sites because of inaccurate patient documentation.”
In June of 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment that would end the current federal ban on the funding of a national patient identification strategy. There is currently no universal standard to 100 percent accurately identify patients and match them to their medical records. Moreover, since 1999, the federal government has been prohibited from spending public funds on the development of a national patient identifier.
The language in the 1999 appropriations bill states that “Sec. 516. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to promulgate or adopt any final standard under section 1173(b) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d-2(b)) providing for, or providing for the assignment of, a unique health identifier for an individual (except in an individual's capacity as an employer or a health care provider), until legislation is enacted specifically approving the standard.”
Earlier this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives removed the ban in its Labor-HHS appropriations bill. PatientID Now is calling on the full Congress to pass this into law and remove the two-decades old ban addressing a national strategy for patient identification and matching.
AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Ph.D., was quoted in the release saying that “We thank the Senate for putting patient safety first and removing the ban from the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that hinders innovation on the critical issue of patient identification. This is an important step to help ensure patients are matched accurately to their medical records in the years to come.”
