CHIME Applauds Health IT Provisions In 21^st Century Cures Act

Statement by CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell on the 21^st Century Cures Act:

Landmark legislation slated for a vote recently by the House of Representatives would significantly improve the ability of hospitals and other providers to exchange accurate patient data and advance personalized care.

The 21^st Century Cures Act contains several provisions that directly impact health information technology policy. CHIME is especially encouraged that in a number of sections the bill addresses the critical issues of accurately identifying patients and matching them to their health records. The absence of national solutions for patient identification and patient matching not only pose serious risks to patient safety, but also lead resources being wasted on cleaning up duplicative medical records, as well as creating other inefficiencies. Among other things, the legislation would direct the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the current state of patient matching and determine what steps the Department of Health and Human Services could take to better ensure that patients are linked to their records. We believe that accurate patient identification is central to improving patient matching. CHIME expects to announce the winner of its National Patient ID Challenge early next year and welcomes the opportunity to work with GAO and HHS on improving methods for keeping patients connected to their information.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, also reflects the growing need to develop a standards-based information exchange infrastructure. If we are going to improve information exchange and interoperability, we need to being the hard work of finalizing a set of standards that will help providers share patient information in a seamless manner.

The health IT provisions in the 21^st Century Cures Act reflect the importance of being able to safely and securely share patient information across the care continuum, and the vital role that technology plays in improving patient outcomes and reduce healthcare spending. We stand ready to work with the administration to deliver on the promises of this important legislation.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,000 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, visit www.chimecentral.org.