[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 6 (Monday, January 11, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1446-1447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-225]
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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
[Docket No. SSA-2009-0088]
Rate of Payment for Medical Records Received Through Health
Information Technology (IT) Necessary To Make Disability Determinations
AGENCY: Social Security Administration.
ACTION: Notice of a uniform national rate of Federal payment for
medical records received through health IT.
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SUMMARY: We have set $15 as the reasonable reimbursement to non-Federal
medical providers for their costs in supplying medical records through
health IT in response to a request. We will pay the uniform national
rate to a medical provider that satisfies a medical records request
through health IT. We are establishing this uniform national rate under
our authority in sections 205(a), 223(d)(5)(A) and 1631(e) of the
Social Security Act (Act).
DATES: We are establishing the reasonable rate for medical records
received through health IT in response to our requests on or after the
date of publication of this notice. We will periodically review this
rate and publish updates in the Federal Register.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cheryl Elksnis, Office of Disability
Programs, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard,
Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, 410-966-0497, for information about this
notice. For information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our
national toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or
visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We are experiencing a significant increase
in the number of initial claims for disability insurance benefits and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments on the basis of disability,
and we expect this trend to continue. The increasing volume of claims,
coupled with the backlog of disability cases in the hearings process,
underscores our need to process cases more efficiently by using
advanced technologies.
Applicants for disability insurance benefits and SSI payments on
the basis of disability must provide medical evidence to support their
claims for benefits. We assist these applicants in obtaining medical
records. We use these medical records to make disability determinations
for more than 2.6 million people who apply each year for benefits. We
rely on medical providers such as doctors, hospitals, clinics, and
others in the healthcare field to respond to our requests for medical
records in a timely manner.
We are now in a position to use health IT to transform the
disability process. Health IT is an electronic system that provides for
a secure exchange of data between health care consumers and providers.
We intend to use health IT in developing medical evidence and
requesting, receiving, and managing medical information. By using
health IT, we will be able to request and receive medical information
within minutes, rather than the days or months it may take to receive
medical evidence by traditional methods. With the advent of health IT,
we will be able to replace a largely paper-based, labor intensive,
manual process with system-to-system data exchange transactions.
We have set $15 as the reasonable reimbursement to non-Federal
medical providers for their costs in supplying medical records through
health IT in response to a request. The $15 rate is based on our
average payment for medical records obtained through non-health IT
processes. As increasing numbers of medical providers
[[Page 1447]]
incorporate health IT and the market for health IT records exchanges
develops, we anticipate that we will develop more detailed information
about the reasonable costs for obtaining medical records through health
IT. Consequently, we will periodically review the uniform national rate
for reimbursing all non-federal medical providers for the reasonable
costs of supplying health IT medical records.
When we revise the uniform national rate, we will publish another
notice in the Federal Register.
Dated: January 4, 2010.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 2010-225 Filed 1-8-10; 8:45 am]
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