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November 15, 2022  

Dear Senators Sinema and Lummis,     

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is pleased to support S. 4528, the Improving Digital Identity Act of 2022.     

CHIME is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With over 5,000 members, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate, exchange best practices, address professional development needs, and advocate for the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve.    

We greatly appreciate your consistent efforts to advance critical policies that support interoperable digital identity verification to protect the privacy and security of individuals. As  the exchange of health data becomes more commonplace, the accurate, efficient identification of patients with their medical record data is a foundational component to interoperability and without it is a major threat to patient safety. In the past few years, accessing and exchanging this information has moved online and this digital transformation underscores the need to provide an easy way for individuals to verify their identity and credentials. That being said, one of the most significant challenges inhibiting the safe and secure electronic exchange of health information is the lack of a consistent digital patient identification strategy. As our healthcare system moves toward further nationwide health information exchange, this essential core functionality – consistency in digital identity verification – remains conspicuously absent, and the standards must be set by the federal government.     

CHIME believes that the provisions within this bill start to significantly address these issues for consumers across the country. As you both know, the Improving Digital Identity Act of 2022 includes the following provisions:     

* Establishes the Improving Digital Identity Task Force to implement a governmentwide effort to develop secure methods for governmental agencies to protect the privacy and security of individuals and support reliable, interoperable digital identity verification in the public and private sectors.  

* The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall award grants to states, local, tribal, and territorial governments to upgrade systems that provide drivers' licenses or other types of identity credentials to support the development of highly secure, interoperable systems that enable digital identity verification.  

* The Government Accountability Office (GAO) shall submit to Congress a report on the estimated potential savings, due to the increased adoption and widespread use of digital identification to: 1) the federal government from averted fraud; and 2) the U.S. economy and consumers from averted identity theft.   

Finally, CHIME believes that this bill is crucial to the safety of consumers so that their digital identities are protected as the virtual environment grows. Digital identity verification has proved to improve quality of life, streamline tedious processes, and advance health equity for underserved populations. We are confident that this act would play a critical role in improving consumer digital safety and we strongly encourage the rest of Congress to advance this legislation.   

If you have any questions related to our letter or would like to discuss further, please contact Mari Savickis, Vice President of Public Policy, at [email protected] .  

Sincerely,  

Russell P. Branzell, CHCIO, LCHIME | President and CEO | CHIME