II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 217 

To permit the use of certain United States Postal Service formatting tools 

by health care organizations to improve the provision of patient matching 

services. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 3, 2021 

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 permit the use of certain United States Postal Service 

formatting tools by health care organizations to improve 

the provision of patient matching services. 

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 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. USE OF UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE FOR7 MATTING TOOLS. 

8 (a) UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE FORMATTING

9 TOOLS.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

2 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 

3 Health and Human Services, acting through the Na4 tional Coordinator for Health Information Tech5 nology, shall— 

6 (A) collaborate with the United States 

7 Postmaster General in order to make its elec8 tronic address formatting tools available, as ap9 propriate and consistent with the terms and 

10 conditions of such tools, to health care organi11 zations (including hospitals, physician offices, 

12 electronic health record vendors, State and local 

13 health departments, registries, laboratories, and 

14 other organizations as determined necessary by 

15 the Secretary) for use in health information 

16 technology systems; 

17 (B) ensure that the electronic address for18 matting tools that are made available to health 

19 care organizations are able to transform single 

20 address records and multiple, simultaneous ad21 dress records into the United States Postal 

22 Service preferred address format; and 

23 (C) collaborate with the United States 

24 Postmaster General to prevent any limitations 

25 on the number of records formatted using the 


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1 address formatting tools or health care organi2 zations that could use the electronic address 

3 formatting tools. 

4 (2) COVID–19 LABORATORY TESTING.—Not 

5 later than 90 days after the date of enactment of 

6 this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Serv7 ices shall collaborate with the United States Post8 master General in order to make its electronic ad9 dress formatting tools available, as appropriate and 

10 consistent with the terms and conditions of such 

11 tools, to laboratories engaged in COVID–19 testing 

12 to improve, as appropriate, data collection consistent 

13 with State and local laws. 

14 (3) CERTIFICATION.—Not later than 1 year 

15 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec16 retary of Health and Human Services shall promul17 gate an interim final rule to require the standardiza18 tion of addresses in the United States Postal Service 

19 format or subsequent health care specific standard 

20 as the standard for addresses when communicated 

21 through application programming interfaces. The 

22 Secretary shall update any applicable standard and 

23 certification requirements pursuant to sections 3004 

24 and 3001(c)(5) of the Public Health Service Act. 


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1 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the date 

2 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 

3 Human Services, in consultation with the United States 

4 Postmaster General, shall submit to the Committee on 

5 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Com6 mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

7 of the Senate, and the Committee on Energy and Com8 merce and the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the 

9 House of Representatives, a report that identifies any bar10 riers, as applicable, to making the tools described in sub11 section (a) available for purposes of such section if the 

12 Postmaster General determines that such tools may not 

13 be made available at such time. 

Æ 


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