Patient Matching Improvement Act of 2021
Bill: S.217 | Sponsor: Sen. Hassan, Margaret Wood (D-NH)
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Patient Matching Improvement Act of 2021
This bill requires the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to standardize the format of postal addresses in health information technology to improve patient matching. Patient matching is the identification and linking of one patient's data within and across health care organizations using multiple demographic fields, such as name and address.
The ONC must collaborate with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to make existing tools that automatically format addresses into a specific standard available to health care organizations. In particular, the ONC must focus on making the tools available to laboratories that test for COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) to improve data collection related to that disease. If the USPS determines the tools cannot be made available to health care organizations, the Department of Health and Human Services must report to Congress on the barriers that prevent such use.
In addition, the ONC must update regulations to require the use of a standard address format as a condition of certification for health information technology.

To permit the use of certain United States Postal Service formatting 
tools by health care organizations to improve the provision of patient 
                           matching services.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Patient Matching Improvement Act of 
2021''.

SEC. 2. USE OF UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE FORMATTING TOOLS.

    (a) United States Postal Service Formatting Tools.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services, acting through the National Coordinator for Health 
        Information Technology, shall--
                    (A) collaborate with the United States Postmaster 
                General in order to make its electronic address 
                formatting tools available, as appropriate and 
                consistent with the terms and conditions of such tools, 
                to health care organizations (including hospitals, 
                physician offices, electronic health record vendors, 
                State and local health departments, registries, 
                laboratories, and other organizations as determined 
                necessary by the Secretary) for use in health 
                information technology systems;
                    (B) ensure that the electronic address formatting 
                tools that are made available to health care 
                organizations are able to transform single address 
                records and multiple, simultaneous address records into 
                the United States Postal Service preferred address 
                format; and
                    (C) collaborate with the United States Postmaster 
                General to prevent any limitations on the number of 
                records formatted using the address formatting tools or 
                health care organizations that could use the electronic 
                address formatting tools.
            (2) COVID-19 laboratory testing.--Not later than 90 days 
        after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services shall collaborate with the United 
        States Postmaster General in order to make its electronic 
        address formatting tools available, as appropriate and 
        consistent with the terms and conditions of such tools, to 
        laboratories engaged in COVID-19 testing to improve, as 
        appropriate, data collection consistent with State and local 
        laws.
            (3) Certification.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services shall promulgate an interim final rule to require the 
        standardization of addresses in the United States Postal 
        Service format or subsequent health care specific standard as 
        the standard for addresses when communicated through 
        application programming interfaces. The Secretary shall update 
        any applicable standard and certification requirements pursuant 
        to sections 3004 and 3001(c)(5) of the Public Health Service 
        Act.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation 
with the United States Postmaster General, shall submit to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Oversight and 
Reform of the House of Representatives, a report that identifies any 
barriers, as applicable, to making the tools described in subsection 
(a) available for purposes of such section if the Postmaster General 
determines that such tools may not be made available at such time.
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