Reps. Kelly, Foster reintroduce MATCH IT Act to streamline Americans' health care

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA), a member of the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Health, and Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT (MATCH IT) Act of 2025, bipartisan legislation that would improve patient safety and privacy by decreasing patient misidentification and promoting interoperability, all without increasing burdens to providers and health systems. This would improve standardization of patients' demographic elements entered into certified health IT products, and create an anonymous, voluntary system to measure patient match rates across the healthcare ecosystem.

In previous Congressional sessions, Reps. Kelly and Foster introduced amendments similar to the MATCH IT Act, which were passed by voice vote in the House of Representatives.

You can read the full bill HERE.

"For too long, patient misidentification has put Americans within the U.S. health care system at risk. Patient matching errors has led to unnecessary expenses, medical mistakes, and even patient deaths," said Rep. Kelly. "This bipartisan legislation works to improve interoperability between health care systems and decrease these fixable matching errors, all while protecting patient privacy. I want to thank Rep. Foster for joining me on this critical legislation that will improve both patient care and patient outcomes."

"I'm proud to introduce this legislation to help reduce instances of patient misidentification that cause thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. This legislation would promote the interoperability of patient matching systems, which would protect patients and decrease burdens on health care providers," said Rep. Foster. "I also look forward to continuing to work with Congressman Kelly to eliminate barriers to unique patient identifiers so we can prevent medical errors and ensure patients receive the correct treatment."

"The American Health Information Management Association® (AHIMA®) commends Representatives Mike Kelly and Bill Foster for once again leading the charge to protect patient safety and improve patient matching," said AHIMA President and Board Chair, Maria Caban Alizondo, PhD, RHIT, FAHIMA. "The MATCH IT Act would decrease rates of patient misidentification, improve patient privacy and care, and bring down costs within the healthcare ecosystem associated with mismatched patient records. AHIMA looks forward to the passage of this critical legislation."

"CHIME applauds the reintroduction of the MATCH IT Act, a critical step toward establishing patient matching standards that enhance patient safety, privacy, and healthcare efficiency. As the industry embraces innovative technologies, ensuring accurate patient identification has never been more urgent. The MATCH IT Act will provide a much-needed framework to improve interoperability, reduce errors, and uphold the integrity of the American healthcare system. We stand in strong support of this bipartisan effort to drive meaningful progress in patient care and health IT," said Russ Branzell, President and Chief Executive Officer, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

"Intermountain Health is proud to support the MATCH IT Act and applauds Representatives Kelly and Foster for their leadership. Ensuring that patients are accurately and consistently connected to their electronic health data is foundational to patient safety and privacy. While Congress has rightly prioritized interoperability and digital health data exchange, progress toward these national priorities is inhibited by patient matching and identification issues. In addition, movement toward a value-based payment system in which care is coordinated across disparate providers of care is impeded because of difficulties in accurately identifying patients at the point of care and linking their prior care records. Intermountain Health is committed to advancing this vital legislation," said Ryan Smith, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Intermountain Health.

BACKGROUND

Patient misidentification within the U.S. health care system has long been a threat to patient safety, patient privacy, and a driver of unnecessary costs to patients and providers. The inability of clinicians to ensure patients are accurately matched with their medical record has caused medical errors, and even patient deaths. Patient misidentification has been named a recurrent patient safety challenge in multiple years by ECRI. Patients must undergo unnecessary repeated medical tests because of the inability to ensure accurate matches to their medical record. Further, the expense of repeated medical care due to duplicate records costs an average of $1,950 per patient inpatient stay, and more than $1,700 per emergency department visit. Thirty-five percent of all denied claims result from inaccurate patient identification, costing the average hospital $2.5 million and the US health care system more than $6.7 billion annually.

The current system of matching patients to their records also leads to increased privacy violations. Overlaid records, caused by merging multiple patients' data into one medical record, may result in unauthorized disclosures under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as the risk of a patient receiving treatment for another patient's condition.

The MATCH It Act would create an industry standard definition for the term "patient match rate."

Organizations that have endorsed the MATCH IT Act for the 119th Congress:

• Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP)
• American Academy of Ophthalmology
• American College of Physicians
• American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
• American Heart Association
• American Medical Informatics Association
• Baptist Health
• Becton Dickinson (BD)
• Civitas Networks for Health
• College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)
• Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)
• DirectTrust
• e4health
• Harris Data Integrity Solutions
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Inc. (HIMSS)
• Imprivata
• Intermountain Health
• Medical Group Management Association
• MyLigo, Inc
• Nemours Children's Health
• OrthoVirginia
• Parkview Health
• Patient ID Now Coalition
• Robert Wood Johnson Barnabus Health
• Verato

Issues:Health Care