NCPDP & Experian Health Announce 100% of the U.S. Population Has a Universal Patient Identifier, Powered by Experian Health UIM and NCPDP Standards™

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- NCPDP and Experian Health announced today that every person in the U.S. population, of an estimated 328 million Americans, have been assigned a unique Universal Patient Identifier, powered by Experian Health Universal Identity Manager (UIM) and NCPDP Standards™ (the "UPI"). The UPI is a vendor- and provider-neutral solution for accurately matching and managing patient identification across the healthcare ecosystem. This accomplishment paves the way for profoundly reducing the risk of medical errors and improving patient safety.

Experian Health is a leader in identity management performing patient identity matching for organizations across the entire healthcare ecosystem. Combining Experian's expansive data assets and innovative UIM technology along with the unique ability NCPDP brings to share the UPI throughout the healthcare ecosystem using the NCPDP Telecommunication Standard and its SCRIPT Standard, each individual in the U.S. that has received medical care or utilized a pharmacy has been processed through the solution and assigned a UPI.

"Having a single, unified and accurate view of the patient is a challenge that plagues the healthcare system, and now we have a comprehensive solution that reduces the barriers to make healthcare safer," explained Lee Ann Stember, President & CEO of NCPDP.

How the UPI works comprising all Americans

The flow of communication happens when healthcare organizations send Experian Health patient demographic information; the system provides the organization in return with the insights and identifiers that they need to better manage patient identities and prevent duplicate records. The UPI can be attached - if the situational requirement is met - to active claims in real-time transactions and then appended by other healthcare partners, effectively improving the integrity of patient records for all ages.

The UPI is a number that is not known to the patient or provider. It is not intended to be a patient-facing number in an effort to prevent misuse of the identifier. The UPI does not collect or share any clinical claims or diagnostic information.

"The vision of Experian Health is to ensure each American is correctly identified and safely cared for by every healthcare organization they visit, which can be enabled through the power of data," said Karly Rowe, Vice President New Product Development, Identity & Care Management Product for Experian. "We're currently servicing retail pharmacies, hospitals, labs and vendors using a variety of services in real-time to prevent and resolve duplicates."

Multiple benefits to providers and patients

By helping identify duplicate or incomplete patient records, and thereby vastly improving data quality, the UPI solution addresses patient safety, interoperability, business and operational challenges currently burdening the healthcare delivery system.

The UPI solution's ability to achieve accurate record match rates for all ages also improves efficient, patient-centered care coordination, as well as population health management strategies, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), social determinants of health initiatives and more.

As patients move from healthcare provider to provider, the UPI will journey through the standards across different care settings and across state geographical boundaries — all the while continually synchronizing to ensure an accurate view of the patient.

"We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone achievement as an important step in tackling a critical patient safety issue with the right partner, technology and process – using industry standards," said Stember. "At the same time, our next steps are in process as we move to help ensure that healthcare organizations nationwide are able to take advantage of the UPI to make healthcare safer for all Americans."

For more information on how the UPI offering works, click here. To learn more about the Experian Health identity suite of products, visit https://www.experian.com/healthcare/products/identity-management.

About NCPDP
Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with more than 1,600 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry. Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process. NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH. NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for ePrescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry. Our data products include dataQ®, a robust database of information on more than 80,000 pharmacies, resQ™, an industry pharmacy credentialing resource, and HCIdea®, an innovative prescriber database that provides continually updated information on more than 2.5 million prescribers. NCPDP's RxReconn® is a legislative tracking product for real-time monitoring of pharmacy-related state and national legislative and regulatory activity. For more information about NCPDP Standards, Data Services, Products, Educational Programs and Work Group meetings, go online at http://www.ncpdp.org or call 480.477.1000.

About Experian Health
At Experian Health, we collaborate with more than 3,400 hospitals and 7,300 other healthcare organizations representing 500,000-plus providers — almost 60 percent of the market — to provide data-driven platforms to empower our clients to make smarter business decisions, boast a better bottom line and foster stronger patient relationships. Our industry-leading solutions include revenue cycle management, identity management, patient engagement and care management.

Part of Experian, the world's leading information services company, our Experian Health business is known for its patient access heritage, advanced data insights and patent-pending Touchless Workflow™ which help providers, labs, pharmacies and other risk-bearing entities power opportunities in today's consumer-driven healthcare environment.

Experian has 17,200 people operating across 44 countries, and every day we're investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

For more information about Experian Health, visit http://www.experianhealth.com. Learn more about Experian at http://www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.

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SOURCE NCPDP