Patent ID: 8359337

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an input adapter configured to receive a first health care data record from a first health care plan and a second health care data record from a second health care plan from a plurality of health care data records stored in one or more databases, where each of the first and second health care data records comprises a plurality of field values; a processor coupled to the input adapter, the processor configured to: generate a plurality of first data keys, where each first data key corresponds to a predetermined combination of at least two field values in the first health care data record; generate a plurality of second data keys, where each second data key corresponds to a predetermined combination of at least two field values in the second health care data record; compare the plurality of second data keys to the plurality of first data keys; assign a first identifier to the first and second health care data records, if a match between the plurality of first data keys and the plurality of second data keys is identified; and assign a second identifier to the first and second health care data records, if no match between the plurality of first data keys and the plurality of second data keys is identified; and an output adapter coupled to the processor, the output adapter configured to produce an output in response to the comparison result.