Patient Matching Improvement Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4456 To amend the Public Health Service Act to permit health information tech- nology systems to use the Postal Service tool to standardize formatting in electronic health records when entering patient information to improve match rates among patient records. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AUGUST 5, 2020 Ms. HASSAN (for herself and Mr. CASSIDY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu- cation, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to permit health information technology systems to use the Postal Service tool to standardize formatting in electronic health records when entering patient information to improve match rates among patient records. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Patient Matching Im- 4 provement Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4456 IS SEC. 2. USE OF USPS FORMATTING TOOL. 1 Section 3001(c)(2) of the Public Health Service Act 2 (42 U.S.C. 300jj–11(c)(2)) is amended by adding at the 3 end the following: 4 ‘‘(C) USPS FORMATTING TOOL.— 5 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 6 days after the date of enactment of this 7 subparagraph, the Secretary, acting 8 through the National Coordinator, shall 9 ensure that the United States Postal Serv- 10 ice electronic address formatting tools that 11 are made available by the United States 12 Postal Service to online retailers at no cost 13 are also made available to health care pro- 14 viders for use in health information tech- 15 nology systems at no cost. The Secretary 16 shall ensure that the electronic address for- 17 matting tools are made available to any 18 health care organization (including hos- 19 pitals, physician offices, electronic health 20 record vendors, State and local health de- 21 partments, registries, and other organiza- 22 tions as determined necessary by the Sec- 23 retary) to transform both single address 24 records and multiple, simultaneous address 25 records into the United States Postal Serv- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4456 IS ice preferred address format. The Sec- 1 retary shall ensure that no limitations exist 2 on the number of records or health organi- 3 zations that use the electronic conversion 4 tool. 5 ‘‘(ii) COVID–19 LABORATORY TEST- 6 ING.—Not later than 90 days after the 7 date of enactment of this subparagraph, 8 the Secretary shall make available the 9 United States Postal Service address for- 10 matting tool for use by laboratories en- 11 gaged in COVID–19 testing to accompany 12 COVID–19 laboratory results. 13 ‘‘(iii) CERTIFICATION.—Not later 14 than 1 year after the date of enactment of 15 this subparagraph, the Secretary shall pro- 16 mulgate regulations to update the condi- 17 tions of certification for health information 18 technology to require the standardization 19 of addresses in the United States Postal 20 Service standard. The Secretary shall up- 21 date requirements under section 3022(a) 22 to include the United States Postal Service 23 format as the standard for addresses when 24 communicated through application pro- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4456 IS gramming interfaces under this subpara- 1 graph.’’. 2 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 3 To carry out the amendment made by this Act, there 4 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 5 necessary. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Aug 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4456.IS S4456 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS