Premier Advocates for National Patient Identification Strategy

Premier joined more than 150 other organizations in urging House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to exclude language prohibiting HHS from allocating funds to promulgate or adopt a national unique patient health identifier standard.

The creation of a national strategy to improve patient identification become even more critical during the pandemic. Lack of effective patient matching undermines care coordination and safety and costs the average hospital $2.5 million and the U.S. healthcare system more than $6.7 billion annually. The letter underscores the importance of removing the outdated ban so that HHS can work with the private sector to explore potential challenges and identify a complete national strategy around patient identification and matching that protects patient privacy and is cost-effective, scalable, and secure.