Feds Release Patient Matching Specification Draft for Public Comment

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released the Project US@ (‘USA’) Draft Technical Specification Version 1.0 for public comment. The project aims to improve patient matching and data exchange through the development of a cross-standards, industry-wide specification for patient address representations.

Patient matching, the practice of connecting patient records across different medical providers or facilities, allows for more informed care management and greater care coordination.

ONC developed Project US@ in collaboration with health IT stakeholders and standards development organizations such as Health Level 7 (HL7), the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), X12, and other Health Standards Collaborative (HSC) members.

“With a clear target and industry-wide commitment, it’s been amazing to see how much progress has been made in six short months,” Steve Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health information technology, said in a press release. “We really appreciate everyone’s efforts thus far, and we encourage additional comment on the draft specification.”

The Project US@ Technical Workgroup also included contributions from CDC, the United States Postal Service (USPS), application developers, health information exchanges (HIEs), and subject matter experts.

The draft specification’s comment period will be open from July 1 through July 31, 2021 and will be released by NCPDP, X12, and HL7.

In addition to submitting comments on the specification, ONC encouraged state agencies, public health organizations, health IT developers, payers, advocacy and research organizations, healthcare providers, and others interested stakeholders to become Project US@ Partners.

Partners are expected to follow and support the project while encouraging wider participation among colleagues, HHS said in the press release. Partners should also engage in the comment periods released by NCPDP, X12, and HL7 and commit to the adoption and implementation of the final specification or updated standard, the agency noted.

ONC is expected to release the final version 1.0 of the Project US@ Technical Specification later this year.

“There are some things on which we really do need to agree across the healthcare ecosystem and implement consistently,” Posnack wrote in an ONC blog post at the time of the Project US@ announcement. “How we represent a patient’s address is one of them.

“In particular, as mundane as address may seem it is often one of the key elements used for the purposes of patient matching and linking records, though other data like email and cell phone number are gaining in their use,” Posnack continued.

He noted that while HL7, NCPDP, and X12 standards require fields for address, the approach to represent patient address is typically left to the implementer to decide.

“Without specific constraints to rely on, implementers use a variety of free and commercial third-party tools, resources, and methods to help normalize address representations,” wrote Posnack.

As the digital health transformation continues, patient matching efforts like Project US@ will be key in boosting patient data exchange to ensure clinicians have the data they need for informed care management.