Social Security seeks to link more providers through NHIN

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking to expand the number of healthcare providers with which it electronically exchanges medical information in order to improve the speed and accuracy of its disability determinations.

To do so, SSA expects to publish a request for proposals Aug. 7 from health information exchanges (HIEs) and providers to share medical and claims information electronically, according to Government Health IT. SSA anticipates being able to award contracts in January, said Jim Borland, SSA special advisor for health IT.

The agency posted a request for information June 29 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site to gauge industry interest and capabilities for the project. Responses are due July 22.

In February, SSA began requesting and collecting EMRs from MedVirginia, a central Virginia HIE with links to several regional hospitals. The project was considered the first production application of the nascent nationwide health information network (NHIN). SSA and MedVirginia HIE connect through the federally-developed open-source software called Connect, which is free and downloadable by any healthcare organization.

SSA wants to build on its successes with MedVirginia, Borland said.

"We would like to expand those benefits to more healthcare providers, to more of our disability determination services in more states. The bottom line is we want to expand the benefits of quicker disability decisions to more of our claimants," he said.

The agency must collect medical evidence from physicians who have treated applicants for disability benefits, still overwhelmingly a paper-based process, Government Health IT reported. SSA requests up to 20 million medical records annually from hospitals, clinics, physicians and other health professionals, and the number is increasing, the SSA notice said.

Acquiring the medical data from each provider can take weeks or months, the agency has said. Providing medical records to SSA is labor intensive, time consuming and expensive, and SSA must use and retain paper authorization forms to request the data.

According to the agency, automating the solution for Release of Information will save time and money for the providers and will make SSA's decision process more efficient and effective.

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