Washington, D.C. (July 31, 2020) : Today the Health Innovation Alliance (HIA) issued the following statement regarding the passage of the U.S. House of Representatives spending bill (H.R. 7617) the “Defense, Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, House and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2021,” which included an Amendment to allow HHS to fund the national patient identifier implementation.

"There has never been a clearer need to have accurate patient information. Filling in these critical gaps of data are essential to effectively respond to any public health crisis," said Joel White, Executive Director. "We applaud Representatives Foster and Kelly for their leadership in this effort and look forward to its full Congressional passage and implementation by the Administration."

Striking Section 510 from the Labor-HHS appropriations bill will provide the US Department of Health and Human Services the ability to evaluate a full range of patient matching solutions and enable it to work with the private sector to identify a solution that is cost-effective, scalable, secure and one that protects patient privacy.

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