Change Healthcare and Experian Health have joined forces to develop new technology for the accurate identification of patients across care settings.

Officials from both companies said the platform will build on Experian Health identity management tools and work with Change Healthcare’s Intelligent Healthcare Network, helping match patient records across payers, providers and other healthcare organizations nationwide.

WHY IT MATTERS
Identity management is a longstanding challenge for healthcare, of course, and a major barrier to data exchange for more effective and efficient care. Inaccurate matching is also also a potential risk to patient safety.

Change Healthcare and Experian Health say this new product will offer a secure, scalable and HIPAA-compliant ID record-matching capability platform, helping enable financial, administrative and clinical improvements.

THE LARGER TREND
The two companies point to recent data from Pew Research Center that showed as many as one in five patient records are not matched accurately, even within specific healthcare systems, and note that a similar proportion of hospital CIOs say they've attributed at least one case of patient harm to identity mixups.

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year, Pew Charitable Trusts called for renewed effort to help tackle the challenge of patient matching. Other groups, including AHIMA, CHIME, and Healthcare IT News' parent company HIMSS, have asked Congress for similar action. Various fixes, whether based on ubiquitous tech such as smartphones or emerging networks such as blockchain, have been proposed.

ON THE RECORD
"It’s imperative the healthcare industry focus on accurate patient identification and data management to improve overall patient safety," said Jennifer Schulz, group president, Experian Health. "This new partnership aligns with our commitment to connect and simplify healthcare in a data-driven world and ultimately deliver an optimal consumer experience."

"Secure identity management is key to improving patient safety and capturing full value from the billions of dollars invested in electronic health record systems," added Kris Joshi, executive vice president, Change Healthcare. "Healthcare is a team sport, and various players have to coordinate to provide optimal care to a patient."