NextGate Joins Patient ID Now Coalition to Advance a National Patient Identification Strategy
Coalition of stakeholders seeks to address the issue of poor patient matching and identification, now exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic
PASADENA, Calif., July 31, 2020 – NextGate, a globally recognized leader in healthcare enterprise identification, has joined the Patient ID Now Coalition, a group of healthcare organizations committed to advancing a nationwide strategy to address the dangerous and costly issue of patient identification.
The newly formed coalition, founded by the American College of Surgeons, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Inc. (HIMSS), Intermountain Healthcare and Premier Healthcare Alliance, is dedicated to repealing the long-standing law that prevents the US Department of Health and Human Services from working with the private sector to develop a nationwide patient identification strategy, including the adoption of a Unique Patient Identifier (UPI).
On July 30, NextGate, and over 60 of the coalition’s other members, called on members of the House of Representatives to strike Section 510 of the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, which currently prohibits the US Department of Health and Human Services from spending any federal dollars to promulgate or adopt a national patient identifier. The amendment, offered by Representative Bill Foster (IL) and Representative Mike Kelly (PA), was later agreed upon by a House vote and will now have to pass through the Senate.
COVID-19 has amplified the need for readily available, high-quality data. To adequately assess the spread, as well as the immunity of a population, detailed data about COVID-19 patients must be collected, processed, and consolidated quickly and accurately. Under current conditions, however, testing and case data are sluggish and unreliable. According to the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), 80 percent of U.S. coronavirus test results are missing demographic information, and half do not have addresses.
“Consistently connecting the right data to the right individual is a critical requirement to reduce errors, improve point-of-care decisions, and enable a complete picture of the pandemic,” said Andy Aroditis, CEO of NextGate. “This crisis has created a pressing need for positive patient identification, and we are proud to be a part of the Patient ID Now Coalition’s initiative for government reform.”
About NextGate
With over 200 customers in six countries, NextGate is the global leader in healthcare enterprise identification. Committed to helping organizations overcome the clinical, operational and financial challenges that result from duplicate records and disparate data, our full suite of identity matching solutions connects the entire healthcare ecosystem to drive critical improvements in quality, efficiency and safety. NextGate’s market-leading EMPI currently manages 300 million lives and is deployed by the nation’s most successful healthcare systems and health information exchanges. For more information, visit NextGate.com.
Media Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications and Media Relations, NextGate
c: 734-233-1483 | o: 734-399-9336
stephanie.fraser@nextgate.com
