Kelly proposes bipartisan bill to reduce patient misidentification

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) recently sponsored bipartisan legislation to improve both patient care and patient outcomes by improving the standardization of how patients’ demographic information is entered into certified health IT products.

“For too long, patient misidentification has put Americans within the U.S. healthcare system at risk. Patient matching errors have led to unnecessary expenses, medical mistakes, and even patient deaths,” Rep. Kelly said on Feb. 16. “This bipartisan legislation works to improve interoperability between healthcare systems and decrease these fixable matching errors, all while protecting patient privacy.”

Currently, there is no national strategy to ensure patients are accurately matched with their medical records, nor a standard definition across the healthcare system of “patient match rate” to ensure the ability to accurately measure patient matches and patient misidentification, according to the text of the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT (MATCH IT) Act of 2024, H.R. 7379, which is cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL).

“Patient misidentification within the United States healthcare system is a threat to patient safety, patient privacy, and a driver of unnecessary costs to patients and providers,” the text says.

If enacted, H.R. 7379 would create both an anonymous, voluntary system to measure patient match rates across the healthcare ecosystem, and an industry standard definition for the term “patient match rate,” states the text.

“I’m proud to introduce this legislation with Congressman Kelly that would help to decrease instances of patient misidentification that cause thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in the United States,” said Rep. Foster. “I also look forward to continuing to work with Congressman Kelly to eliminate barriers to unique patient identifiers so we can prevent medical errors and ensure patients receive the correct treatment.”

The American Health Information Management Association, CHIME Healthcare, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and Intermountain Health endorsed the measure.