Including unique device identifiers on insurance claims may help determine whether certain types of implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers or joint implants, are working properly, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.
Medication unique identifies, which are numbers that provide certain information like the drug's manufacturer and dosage amount, are entered on claim forms submitted to both private and public payers. Because of the large amount of claims filed daily, the population data associated with these claims can help identify if a specific drug is causing unintentional side effects or harm. This approach would be helpful to use with implantable medical devices because it can help identify faulty medical devices more quickly, according to the report.
Pew cited research published in the Journal of Patient Safety, which found that claims data could effectively be applied to support information on device safety from a patient's EHR. This approach addresses the issue of EHR interoperability between healthcare organizations, which often cannot share patients' health information unless the organizations use the same vendor's system. However, using insurance claims data would prevent any data barriers between hospitals and health systems because insurance claims can include information from various healthcare organizations.
"…Insurance claims are a crucial source of information and can help reveal more widespread problems or trends," Pew concluded. "And this information, if used to evaluate medical device safety, could help determine whether certain types of products lead to higher risks of hospital readmissions, surgeries to revise an implant, or other complications."