A proposal for a national health care identifier

This paper describes a proposed standard for the creation of a national health care identifier being developed under the auspices of the ASTM. The standard includes the desired properties of such an identifier and a description of existing identifier schemes. It includes a proposed identifier scheme, descriptions of how the proposed scheme would function, and an evaluation of how well the proposed scheme meets the properties outlined in the standards document. This paper provides a partial summary of the material contained in the proposed standard.