Why is there no country-wide electronic Master Person Identifier (MPI) for the U.S.?

We discussed in Webinar 3 the importance of linking the records for an individual across systems, and the role of an electronic Master Person Index (eMPI) to do so. Creating a unique health identifier was actually included in the original HIPAA legislation draft in 1996, but with privacy concerns, there was a law in place to ensure a unique patient identifier is not created until there is legislation that specifically approves it.  Here we are 23 years later without legislation to change that. 

 

Below are a few links that discuss advocacy efforts for a universal person identifier (UPI) for your information: 

Finding John Doe:   http://bok.ahima.org/doc?oid=301386#.XKeYOihKhPY

American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) petition for UPI:  https://journal.ahima.org/2016/03/21/petition-calls-for-unique-patient-identifier-solution/