HHS-Led Initiative Releases Unified Specification for Patient Addresses in Health Care

Project US@ Technical Specification Final Version 1.0 Now Available

The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with standards development organizations (SDOs) and health IT stakeholders, recently released the Project US@ (‘Project USA’) Technical Specification Final Version 1.0. This new specification is a unified, cross-standards, health care specification that could be used across industry for representing patient addresses (mailing, physical, billing, etc.) to improve patient matching.

Patient matching and specifically how patient addresses are represented has long been viewed as a critical component of nationwide interoperability and the nation’s health IT infrastructure. The availability of a unified, cross-SDO specification is a testament to the broad industry engagement behind this effort. Now that a specification exists, ONC encourages state and federal agencies, public health organizations, payers, health IT developers, research organizations, health care providers, and all other interested stakeholders to consider adopting and implementing the final specification.

“A standardized patient address might seem like a small thing, but that’s precisely why this work was important. Improving the accuracy and consistency of addresses will have a big impact if implemented at scale,” says Steve Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health IT. “I am grateful to the SDOs, federal partners, and health IT stakeholders who all joined in to rapidly develop this new specification.”

Also available today is the Project US@ Companion Guide developed by and in collaboration with AHIMA. This resource provides operational best practices related to accurate and timely capture and management of patient addresses developed in Project US@ Technical Specification Final Version 1.0.

A draft Technical Specification Version 1.0 was released for comment in June 2021 and SDO’s collected input during a 30-day comment period in July 2021. Nearly 130 comments were received from stakeholders and the public, informing the Final Version 1.0. This completes ONC’s goal to complete Project US@ by early 2022.

More information about Project US@ can be found on the Project US@ page.

Source: Health and Human Services