Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House's $99.4B HHS Appropriations Bill Includes Amendment Reversing Ban On Developing Unique Patient PINs
Modern Healthcare: House Votes To Overturn Ban On National Patient Identifier
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $99.4 billion HHS appropriation bill with several amendments including reversing a longtime ban on developing a national patient identifier, money for hospital emergency departments dealing with opioid overdoses, and a nod to the anti-vaccination controversy. For decades, Congress has prohibited HHS from funding the development or promotion of any national program where patients would receive permanent, unique identification numbers. (Luthi and Cohen, 6/13)
Modern Healthcare: As The Care Continuum Expands, Patient-Matching Remains A Problem Without A Single Solution
Matching patients with their medical information sounds like a simple concept, but it’s not. The practice is plagued by such issues as typos, missing data, similar names and new addresses—resulting in match rates as low as 80% within the same facility, according to the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. That means 1 in every 5 patients may not be linked with the correct record. It also leads to higher costs. Patient-matching remains a multi- billion-dollar problem in the U.S., with inaccurate patient identification accounting for $1,950 in duplicative medical care costs per inpatient and $1.5 million in denied claims per hospital each year, according to a survey by Black Book. (Cohen, 6/13)
In other news about electronic health records —
Modern Healthcare: VA, Defense Propose New Office For EHR Projects
The Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments plan to create a joint office that will have decision-making authority for their co-developed health record system, leaders told lawmakers on Wednesday. After months of congressional criticsm and requests for a proposed joint governance structure for the massive project, the agencies said they are creating Federal EHR Modernization Program Management Office as a "single point of authority" for EHR projects. (Cohen, 6/12)
