IT cuts SSA disability wait

The Social Security Administration is finally turning to technology to cut the backlog of applicants applying for SSA disability benefits. In the last few years, it has been taking as long as two years from the time a potential beneficiary applies for disability benefits to actually receive them. The culprit has been paper, but that is about to end.

SSA awarded contracts to 15 health information networks to use electronic medical records instead of paper forms. The process could take days to complete instead of the current lengthy process.

The agency began testing the process three years ago, pulling health records of disability applicants from local health providers and get them rapidly into the hands of SSA adjudicators. The new funds--$17.4 million--were made available through the stimulus package and piggyback on plans to develop an electronic record system for medical records. It is a goal of the Obama administration, but many EMR plans are still in their infancy at hospitals and doctor's offices.

Nevertheless, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

"The use of health IT will dramatically improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of this process, reducing the cost of making a disability decision for both the medical community and the American taxpayer," said Michael Astrue, SSA's commissioner.

For more on SSA's disability backlog:
- see this Government Health IT article

Related Articles:
SSA fails to use e-verify for 19 percent of new hires
SSA slowed down by old mainframe