Health IT Vendor, SSA Partner for Disability Claims EHR Interoperability

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has partnered with health IT vendor Veradigm, a business unit of Allscripts, in an effort to support EHR interoperability for disability claims.

Every year, SSA Disability Determination Services (DDS) processes millions of disability applications and makes millions of patient-authorized requests for EHR data from healthcare providers to support the disability adjudication process.

The partnership will allow SSA to electronically request and receive EHR data through the vendor’s network solution, Veradigm eChart Courier. The health IT is set to speed up the disability claims process, which may mean sooner access to insurance coverage and other social service benefits.

Additionally, leveraging interoperability within the disability process is set to minimize clinician burden related to EHR data exchange.

“Veradigm eChart Courier will enable SSA to leverage health information technology to automate the request and receipt of data to reduce patient health record retrieval time from weeks or days to just minutes,” Jay Bhattacharyya, SVP & GM of Veradigm, said in a press release. “These types of efficiencies, at scale, can help transform the provision of healthcare in the United States.”

SSA also recently announced a data sharing agreement with EHR vendor Cerner.

“Cerner is proud to help the federal government better support those in need by getting them the benefits they are entitled to more quickly and efficiently,” Sam Lambson, Cerner vice president of interoperability, noted in a public statement at the time of the announcement.

“SSA’s work with Cerner will help streamline the process and is an important example of how systems that connect to each other can help improve our health and quality of life,” he added.

The EHR vendor will pilot the solution with three of its clients in the coming months and plans to expand the offering to additional clients who choose to participate.