---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/Develop,advocate-for-and-pass-legislation.-Governm"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "Develop,advocate for and pass legislation."
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/develop,advocate-for-and-pass-legislation.-governm"
summary: "Develop,advocate for and pass legislation. Governments should mandate adoption of standards providing for a standard national health identifier for each individual,employer,health plan,and health care provider for use in the healthcare system."
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Develop,advocate for and pass legislation.

Develop,advocate for and pass legislation. Governments should mandate adoption of standards providing for a standard national health identifier for each individual,employer,health plan,and health care provider for use in the healthcare system.

- Timeframe: 6-12 Months (long)
- Audience: Private Sector, Academia, Healthcare Providers
- Type: Policy/Legislative/Regulatory, Data, Partnerships
- Recommendation: [National Patient Identifiers](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/national-patient-identifiers)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Identify key legal and regulatory bottlenecks restricting adjustments to patient identifier systems
2. For regulatory barriers, consider updating regulations to better support interoperability, standardization, and the framework needed for a UHI/NPI system
3. For existing legislation, develop proposed replacement legislation and advocate for this legislation through the appropriate legislative processes and procedures

## Examples from around the world

1. Estonia has one of the most [highly-developed national ID-card systems](https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-identity/id-card/) in the world, Every citizen in Estonia has an online e-health record that can be tracked, and linked to a person’s electronic ID-card. The health records are secured with KSI Blockchain technology and are used to ensure data integrity. The information is only accessible to authorized health personnel. 99% of health data, prescription information and electronic billing in healthcare are digitized. The [Electronic Health Record](https://e-estonia.com/solutions/healthcare/) is a nationwide system that integrates data from diverse healthcare providers into a common record accessible to patients and doctors as a single electronic file. The system functions as a centralized, national database that retrieves data from various providers with different systems and presents the information into a standard format via the e-patient portal.