“How can you be added to the EHR if you can’t prove who you are? While it appears that anyone can get care in at least some of our emergency departments, and programs like my outpatient clinic will initially take anyone for an intake, follow up care, laboratory studies, and diagnostic radiology are nearly impossible without being identifiable in an EHR. This is one of the frequent collateral losses for ‘undocumented’ people.’ Calling people undocumented implies that the only documentation that counts is from this country, but truly undocumented people lose (or have taken) whatever identification they had from their starting country. International agencies — for example, Doctors Without Borders — struggle with how to provide identification for people who cross borders, and who will get access to those documents.”
— Barbara Herbert, MD, medical director, Common Health
