SSA Reports Dramatic Improvement in Processing Disability Claims through New Health Information Network

Our Jan. 14 post explained how SSA is streamlining efficiencies in processing disability insurance claims by using Health IT, an electronic system that collects medical information. Now there’s convincing proof that it works.

A year ago, SSA partnered with MedVirginia, a health information exchange (HIE), to test the use of the National Health Information Network (NHIN) to expedite disability insurance claims. SSA’s case study results are in and, not only reveal that the use of electronic exchanges dramatically decreases disability claims processing time, but also demonstrates how this efficiency provides the strong financial impetus needed for health care providers to participate in these networks.

The report reveals that the time for processing disability claims was cut from 84 days to 46 days. For SSA, this is a huge improvement in service to disability claimants.

It also states that health care providers can gain significant revenue from implementing a health information exchange (HIE).  The SSA case study reports a $2 million return to health care partners for using HIE.

The SSA disability claims process can only continue to improve as more and more health care providers catch on to buying into the health IT and HIE systems.