“The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in collaboration with standards development organizations and a broad community of experts today released the Project US@ (‘USA’) Draft Technical Specification Version 1.0 for public comment.”
“Project US@ was created to develop a unified, cross-standards, healthcare industry-wide specification for representing patient addresses to improve patient matching.”
“’With a clear target and industry-wide commitment, it’s been amazing to see how much progress has been made in six short months,’ said Steve Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health information technology. ‘We really appreciate everyone’s efforts thus far, and we encourage additional comment on the draft specification.'”
“The unified approach to Project US@ comes from a wide collaboration of industry stakeholders and standards development organizations including Health Level 7 (HL7), the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), X12, and other members of the Health Standards Collaborative (HSC). The Project US@ Technical Workgroup that developed the draft specification included contributions from, for example, the United States Postal Service (USPS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, developers of patient matching and other health IT applications, health information exchanges and networks, standards development organizations, and other subject matter experts.”
“The comment period for the draft specification will be open from July 1 through July 31, 2021, and will be released by NCPDP, X12, and HL7. The final version 1.0 of the Project US@ Technical Specification is expected to be released later in 2021.”
“In addition to submitting comments on the Project US@ specification, ONC encourages state agencies, public health organizations, payers, health IT developers, advocacy and research organizations, healthcare providers, and all other interested stakeholders to become Project US@ Partners. Partners will be expected to follow and support the project, encourage wider participation among colleagues, engage in the comment periods at NCPDP, X12, and HL7, and commit to adopting and implementing the final specification or updated standard.” Read the full press release here.
Source: HHS Releases Project US@ Draft Technical Specification Version 1.0 for Comment – June 16, 2021. HHS.
