Linking Unique Identifiers (UDIs) to Insurance Claims: A Pilot Demonstration [Methods Study], Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, 2016-2021 (ICPSR 39635)
Version Date: Dec 10, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Joel Weissman, Brigham and Women's Hospital
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39635.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Medical devices, such as pacemakers or stents, can help diagnose, treat, or prevent health problems. Companies that make medical devices label them with unique device identifiers, or UDIs. UDIs contain data about a device, such as the make, model, and expiration date. Healthcare providers can scan UDIs when they use the devices and record UDI data in patients' health records.
Right now, UDI data can only be accessed by the health systems that use the devices. Having the UDI data in insurance claim forms, instead of only in patients' health records, would mean that researchers could look at data over time and across health systems. They could then use these data to help monitor devices for safety or study questions like how well devices are working.
In this study, the research team created ways to send UDI data from health systems to insurance claims forms.
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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
To develop a process to transmit UDIs recorded at the point of care to the insurance claims of a health insurer
Study Design View help for Study Design
Researchers worked with two health systems and their respective health insurers to develop a process and software to link and transmit UDI data to insurance claims. To do this, researchers:
- Developed and implemented processes in each health system to capture UDI information through barcode scanners
- Identified locations on claims forms to report UDI information
- Developed and implemented software for transmitting UDI information captured at the point of care to the selected location on the claims form
- Developed and implemented a method for analyzing claims forms received by the health insurer that involved integrating data into the health insurer's claims processing system
- Researchers manually reviewed claims data to see if the software sent the right UDI data to the claims form.
Researchers found that, in both health systems, the processes and software successfully integrated UDI information with insurance claims. For one health system, researchers determined integration success by confirming that the number and values of UDIs received by the insurer matched the number and values transmitted by the health system. For the other health system, researchers determined integration success by confirming that UDIs appeared in claims for every patient who received a device at the health system.
A group of patients with medical device implants, clinicians, health information technology (IT) professionals, and health insurers helped design the study.
Universe View help for Universe
Patients in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
Data Source View help for Data Source
UDIs, EHRs, and insurance claims data from two health systems in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
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This study is maintained and distributed by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Data Repository (PCODR). PCODR is the official data repository of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Initiative (PCORI).