II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4456 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to permit health information technology systems to use the Postal Service tool to standardize formatting 

in electronic health records when entering patient information to improve 

match rates among patient records. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 5, 2020 

Ms. HASSAN (for herself and Mr. CASSIDY) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to permit health 

information technology systems to use the Postal Service 

tool to standardize formatting in electronic health records 

when entering patient information to improve match 

rates among patient records. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Patient Matching Im5 provement Act of 2020’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. USE OF USPS FORMATTING TOOL. 

2 Section 3001(c)(2) of the Public Health Service Act 

3 (42 U.S.C. 300jj–11(c)(2)) is amended by adding at the 

4 end the following: 

5 ‘‘(C) USPS FORMATTING TOOL.— 

6 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 

7 days after the date of enactment of this 

8 subparagraph, the Secretary, acting 

9 through the National Coordinator, shall 

10 ensure that the United States Postal Serv11 ice electronic address formatting tools that 

12 are made available by the United States 

13 Postal Service to online retailers at no cost 

14 are also made available to health care pro15 viders for use in health information tech16 nology systems at no cost. The Secretary 

17 shall ensure that the electronic address for18 matting tools are made available to any 

19 health care organization (including hos20 pitals, physician offices, electronic health 

21 record vendors, State and local health de22 partments, registries, and other organiza23 tions as determined necessary by the Sec24 retary) to transform both single address 

25 records and multiple, simultaneous address 

26 records into the United States Postal ServVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456

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1 ice preferred address format. The Sec2 retary shall ensure that no limitations exist 

3 on the number of records or health organi4 zations that use the electronic conversion 

5 tool. 

6 ‘‘(ii) COVID–19 LABORATORY TEST7 ING.—Not later than 90 days after the 

8 date of enactment of this subparagraph, 

9 the Secretary shall make available the 

10 United States Postal Service address for11 matting tool for use by laboratories en12 gaged in COVID–19 testing to accompany 

13 COVID–19 laboratory results. 

14 ‘‘(iii) CERTIFICATION.—Not later 

15 than 1 year after the date of enactment of 

16 this subparagraph, the Secretary shall pro17 mulgate regulations to update the condi18 tions of certification for health information 

19 technology to require the standardization 

20 of addresses in the United States Postal 

21 Service standard. The Secretary shall up22 date requirements under section 3022(a) 

23 to include the United States Postal Service 

24 format as the standard for addresses when 

25 communicated through application proVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456

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1 gramming interfaces under this subpara2 graph.’’. 

3 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

4 To carry out the amendment made by this Act, there 

5 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 

6 necessary. 

Æ 


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