Everyday People Matter

Electronic Health Records Help Speed up Social Security Disability Claims Processing

| Nov 30, 2012 | Electronic health records

The use of software that uses electronic health records in the processing of Social Security claims could speed up the process of processing the claims, and reduce the amount of time taken to determine whether an applicant is eligible for a claim.
According to a new report, the system was developed by researchers at the Wright State Research Institute in Dayton, Ohio. The system is called HealthLink, and was developed after a contract was awarded to the Wright State Research Institute by the Social Security Administration. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided for electronic health records to be made available to the Social Security Administration, with more than $74 million set aside for this.

Since December last year, a group of 500 doctors has been quietly testing the system to determine whether it helps speed up the process of determining the eligibility of a claim. The researchers found that during this period of time, an average of one request for determination of Social Security status was processed per doctor per month. However, the national average time was approximately 345 days last year.
According to the researchers, it is possible through the use of the electronic health record system to speed up the processing of a claim to just under 48 hours.

The Social Security Administration has been collaborating with healthcare facilities and other institutions in order to speed up the processing of claims. In June this year, the agency announced that it is partnering with Kaiser Permanente to launch a pilot program under which records would be shared between the Social Security Administration and Kaiser Permanente.

Lisa Siegel is a Social Security disability lawyer, helping persons with disabilities in the metro Atlanta region and across Georgia recover their disability benefits. If you are eligible for Social Security, and have had your claim denied, contact Lisa to learn your rights.