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Coalition of healthcare organizations seeks relief from statutory language blocking HHS from supporting a solution to address serious issues preventing accurate patient matching.
Centennial, CO – 
Founded by the American College of Surgeons, AHIMA, CHIME, HIMSS, Intermountain Healthcare and Premier Healthcare Alliance, Patient ID Now is focused first on removing long-standing statutory language in the federal budget that has hampered the ability of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to advance a nationwide patient identification strategy. Narrow interpretation of that language—contained within section 510 of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill—prohibits HHS from supporting efforts to identify a national solution, such as adoption of a Unique Patient Identifier (UPI).
“Just Associates is pleased to lend its support to this vital cause as a member of Patient ID Now,” said Lora Hefton, Executive Vice President, Just Associates. “For nearly two decades, Just Associates has been committed to improving MPI management, patient matching and data integrity. We enthusiastically support the coalition’s effort to take a legislative approach to clear the path toward a national patient identification strategy that can address this serious patient—and public—safety issue.”
Inaccurate identification and matching endanger patients through an increased risk of medical errors, delayed or lost diagnoses, duplicative testing and wrong patient orders. For providers, the lack of a consistent approach to patient identification costs the average healthcare facility $1.2 million per year and the U.S. health system more than $6 billion annually.
“Any failure to accurately match patients with their health information has the potential to also create a public health crisis,” said Hefton. “When public health surveillance systems are inadvertently populated with thousands of inaccurate records, it eliminates from consideration information on test results and diagnoses that is critical to making informed and timely public health decisions.”
About Just Associates, Inc.
A recognized leader in health information data integrity and management for nearly two decades, Just Associates, Inc. (www.justassociates.com) is a healthcare data integration consulting firm that delivers superior value to its clients through improved patient matching. Just Associates has the process expertise and systems knowledge to deliver tailored, value-added solutions that improve clients’ financial outcomes and business processes, support delivery of quality patient care, and meet the expectations of diverse stakeholders through improved data integrity.
Liz Goar
liz@npccs.com
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