Members of the Patient ID Coalition agree on the following:

• • • For nearly two decades, innovation and industry progress have been stifled due to an appropriations restriction included in Section 510 of each of the annual appropriations acts for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) that prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from spending federal dollars to promulgate or adopt a unique health identifier for individuals. Narrow interpretation of this language has led to the failure to institute a nationwide patient identification strategy.
      
      
    • Failure to accurately identify patients to their data raises patient safety and quality of care concerns across the care continuum from diagnostic testing to treatment. A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute reported that 86 percent of survey respondents said they have witnessed or know of a medical error that was the result of patient misidentification. The Joint Commission in its 2019 and 2020 National Patient Safety goals cites patient identification as an area of concern in the context of patient safety.
      
      
    • Challenges associated with accurate patient identification raise financial and resource concerns including claims denials and implementation of time consuming and costly processes to correct medical records. The Ponemon Institute indicates that on average, 35 percent of all denied claims result directly from inaccurate patient identification or inaccurate/incomplete patient information, costing the average healthcare facility in the US $1.2M per year. Another survey indicated that 33 percent of all denied claims result from patient misidentification, costing the average hospital $1.5 million in 2017 and the US healthcare system over $6 billion annually.
      
      
    • Difficulties in correctly matching patients to their health information across health information technology systems limits health information exchange which can lead to decisions made by clinicians based on incomplete information resulting in increased chances of misdiagnosis, unsafe treatment and duplicative testing. A survey by the American Hospital Association in 2017 indicated that 45 percent of large hospitals reported that difficulties in accurately identifying patients to their health information across health information technology systems limits health information exchange.
      
      
    • Passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act established a clear mandate on the Nation’s healthcare community to adopt electronic health records and health information exchange capabilities.
      
      
    • Enactment of the 21st Century Cures Act put in place a technological architecture to carry out the exchange of health information nationwide.
      
      
    • Despite the ban, the US Department of Health and Human Services and other government agencies have, on occasion, opined on how to improve patient matching in health information exchange.
      
      
    • We support removal of section 510 from the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill which would allow HHS the flexibility to work with the private sector to develop a nationwide patient identification strategy.