“We are literally at the forefront of changing the way that health information technology interacts with us as health care consumers,” said Aaron Miller, health information technology program manager for the Wright State Research Institute.
Wright State researchers developed the regional health information exchange, called HealthLink, under a $750,000 contract awarded in 2010 by the Social Security Administration.
Wright State was one of 15 health care providers and networks who received a total of $17.4 million contracts to provide electronic medical records to the agency. The awards were funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“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 J. Astrue, Social Security commissioner.
HealthLink was launched in December 2011 with a pilot group of 500 doctors from Wright State Physicians in Ohio and Centennial Family Medicine in Oregon. During the successful nine-month trial, HealthLink processed an average of one Social Security determination request per doctor each month with no glitches, Miller said.
More than 11 million Americans receive some form of disability benefits from Social Security and millions more have applied and are waiting to find out if they are eligible, according to agency officials.
Most initial applications for Social Security disability benefits are denied. Last year, the average wait time for processing appeals nationwide was 345 days.
The Dayton Daily News in July reported that the Social Security Administration’s Dayton hearing office has been one of the nation’s slowest when completing applicants’ appeals for disability benefits, with an average wait time of 491 days to receive a ruling.
The Social Security Administration’s Health IT program is intended to bring the speed and power of electronic medical records to the disability decision process. The records are transmitted, with a patient’s authorization, through the Nationwide Health Information Network.
“We are one of a very select few that are operating in this exchange right now,” Miller said.
The Social Security Administration requests more than 15 million medical records from about 500,000 providers to help make decisions on more than 3 million disability claims annually, officials said. Currently, most patients’ medical records are received by mail or fax, a costly and largely paper-bound process that can sometimes take months.
“We have been able to provide a solution here from an electronic health information exchange perspective that can get a disability claims determination resolution in as little as 48 hours,” Miller said.
Eliminating mail requests for hard copies of patient health records accelerates the process by removing some of the manually intensive human processing aspects. It also reduces physicians’ costs for labor, printing, paper and postage, and provides quicker resolutions for patients, Miller said.
HealthLink requires patient authorization for the release of personal medical records. The system has comprehensive security protocols involving individual users, physical security requirements and the exchange of data.
“There is a continual loop of security-based activities that are going on to ensure that we only share the information with the SSA if there is a release of information that has been granted and we have rights to that information,” Miller said.
The hardware and infrastructure to support the system is located in HIPAA-certified secure areas on Wright State’s campus.
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine professor Kate Cauley started building an electronic medical records system and health information exchange capability during the mid-2000s, according to Miller.
A team of seven Wright State researchers then worked to develop the technology into a live production system with an associated revenue stream that allows the university to create a sustainable business model that can be leveraged here in Ohio.
“This is a great example of us creating a real commercializable opportunity with tangible evidence of being able to develop and attract health care information technology jobs associated with the sector,” Miller said.
Miller said the university has received interest in spinning off HealthLink as a commercial entity, but he declined further comment on that prospect.
HealthLink currently supports physicians who are using the cloud-based athenaClinicals electronic health records system.
Wright State is seeking additional physicians who use the Athena Health system to join HealthLink to expand its Social Security capability.
The research institute also is in the process of integrating EpicCare, the electronic medical records system used locally by both Premier Health Partners and the Kettering Health Network.
“We really hope to be a big player in this as we move forward. We have got a great position to start from,” Miller said.
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