Poor Patient Matching Stifles Electronic Health Record Exchange

The government’s goal of seamless electronic data exchange among health-care providers won’t happen until they get better at accurately matching patients with their medical records.

The Department of Health and Human Services has received over 700 comments in response to a February proposed rule on standardizing electronic exchange of health records. Lack of effective patient matching is a major concern for many people in the industry.

Comments on the proposal are due June 3. The HHS will then determine if there’s a way for its Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT to coordinate patient matching efforts in the ...