Part of the delay in any disability claim is the time it takes to get medical records from physicians and hospitals. This new initiative and others like it will streamline the process by getting records to decision makers in a timely manner;
A new partnership between the Social Security Administration and Kaiser Permanente should speed up processing of disability claims for Kaiser members.
The two organizations are launching a pilot program to exchange records–with patient consent–using the Nationwide Health Information Network. The pilot is to begin in the next month and involve several Kaiser facilities in the San Diego area.
The Social Security Administration has similar partnerships with 13 smaller providers using the NwHIN, but this represents its first large-scale exchange. Kaiser’s 8.9 million patients make its population roughly equal to that of Sweden. Social Security requests about 70,000 patient files from Kaiser Permanente each year, according to an SSA statement. See link here
http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/kaiser-social-security-pilot-records-exchange/2012-06-26#ixzz1zPwY8VC5
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