Policy & Regulation News

Healthcare Orgs Call Congress to Remove National Patient Identifier Ban

Over 100 healthcare organizations signed a letter urging Congress to remove language in a bill that prohibits the use of federal dollars to adopt a national patient identifier standard.

Healthcare Orgs Call Congress to Remove National Patient Identifier Ban

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By Hannah Nelson

- The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and over 100 other healthcare organizations sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees calling to remove a funding ban for a national patient health identifier standard.

The letter notes that outdated rider language in Section 510 of the Fiscal Year 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations bill prohibits HHS from spending federal dollars to adopt a national unique patient identifier standard.

“For more than two decades, innovation and industry progress has been stifled due to a narrow interpretation of this language, included in Labor-HHS bills since FY1999,” the healthcare organizations wrote. “Without the ability of clinicians to correctly connect a patient with their medical record, lives have been lost and medical errors have needlessly occurred.”