25 hours ago · To do its work, GAO reviewed reports by ONC and others about patient record matching. GAO also interviewed various stakeholders that play a role in exchanging health records, including representatives from physician practices, hospitals, health systems, health information exchange organizations, and health IT vendors. >> Go To The Portal
GAO and others have reported that accurately matching patient health records is a barrier to health information exchange and that inaccurately matched records can adversely affect patient safety or privacy. At the federal level, ONC is charged with coordinating nationwide efforts to implement and use health IT.
Efforts to accurately match patient records will continue to challenge providers, payers and others, with no one-size-fits-all approach to ensuring that information in different health records refers to the same patient, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says in a Tuesday report to Congress.
Patient matching is a huge problem in healthcare and a major barrier in achieving full interoperability. Mismatching patients and records can lead to missed diagnoses or treatments, putting patient safety at risk.
Topics covered: M&A, health IT, care delivery, healthcare policy & regulation, health insurance, operations and more.