Bill Would Help Standardize Patient Identification
The issues surrounding patient misidentification include threats to patient safety, patient privacy, and a catalyst for unnecessary costs to patients and providers. Federal regulators and the healthcare industry have pushed for the creation of a unique patient identifier (UPI) that would give each patient an individual code, like a social security number, to match that person to their medical records. A new Congressional bill recently introduced would help create a national standard for patient matching. Currently there is no national standard or definition of “patient match rate”.
If passed, the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT (Match IT) Act of 2024 would support new standards to help clinicians and practices match patients with their health records. The measure would establish the “patient match rate” as a clinical quality measurement.
According to Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., one of the bill’s cosponsors, from a clinical perspective, patient misidentification has caused medical errors and even patient deaths. From a financial perspective, 35 percent of all denied claims result from inaccurate patient identification, costing the average hospital $2.5 million and the industry more than $6.7 billion annually. In addition, the cost of repeated or unnecessary care due to inaccurate medical data costs $1,950 per patient inpatient stay and more than $1,700 per ED visit. Highlights of the bill include:
- Identification, definition and adoption of the minimum data set needed to support the adoption of patient matching at an accuracy rate of 99.9 percent; and include this data set in the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability.
- Implementation of data standards in the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability.
- Consultation with health care providers, electronic health record (EHR) vendors, patient groups, federal agencies and others as appropriate during the data standards development process.
- Establishment by CMS (through policy making) of a voluntary reporting program and bonus measure within the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program for eligible providers.
