SSA moves ahead on automated medical records retrieval

Government Health IT, December 2, 2008

The Social Security Administration wants to develop a prototype of a system that would automatically pull information from electronic health records to more easily deal with the more than 2.5 million disability claims it receives annually. The SSA currently obtains paper copies of claimants' medical records to verify that the individuals involved are disabled, a process that can take months and costs SSA more than $500 million a year. Some of the records are online in the standard Continuity of Care Document format and could be retrieved electronically much faster and easier, SSA officials said.