Why would an Individual Identifier be needed?
HIPAA recognized the need for a unique individual identifier as part of the administrative simplification process. Today, the various health care providers assign individuals numbers for purposes of their own identification process and obviously these numbers are not cross-referenced. A unique individual identifier will allow for the reduction of administration workload and costs, enable faster access to critical health information, and increase the efficiency in the exchange of electronic data. Duplicate medical record numbers and disparate medical files have plagued the health care industry, due to many reasons. Individuals may not present themselves accurately or in the same manner for each individual episode of care, such as the use of nicknames, name changes due to marriage or divorce, or misspelling of one’s name. Health care staff may not select or retrieve the appropriate record due to the previous reasons, misfilings, or inadvertent error. Studies have documented intentional m
