If you check in the archives of this site  for the other postings for processing time, you will be able to see the other rankings for past times. Indianapolis has improved so that it no longer hovers in last or next to last place, and it has not for many months now. Be sure you check out the Archives for postings on many different issues connected to a Social Security Disability claim or you are not getting the full benefit from this site!

Regenstrief Institute to help improve disability determination through health information technology

INDIANAPOLIS –- The Regenstrief Institute has been awarded a Recovery Act contract to help the U.S. Social Security Administration and Indiana healthcare providers shorten and improve the process of making disability case determinations through automation. Work is scheduled to begin March 31.

The process of acquiring medical information for an SSA disability claim involves numerous requests to multiple healthcare providers treating the individual seeking disability benefits. This process can take weeks or even months following an application for benefits. Physician offices, hospitals and others health care provider must gather the individual’s recent medical information and submit it via fax or U.S. mail.

The Regenstrief Institute, an international leader in heath information technology, created and operates the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), a secure statewide health information exchange that providers use to help improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care that their patients receive. Improving the disability determination process complements other functions of the INPC, including surveillance for influenza outbreaks and access to a patient’s diverse medical records when providing emergency care.

“We will leverage the capability of the INPC to quickly and efficiently collect the information requested electronically by SSA, with the specific authorization of the person applying for disability benefits, and securely transfer it to the government so the disability decision process can be completed more rapidly. This will make that process more efficient – both because it will be faster and also because the medical data compiled will be more complete. It also will take the time and expense of going to many different providers, assembling the necessary records and filling out forms off the shoulders of patients and decrease the need for providers to search for and send records manually,” said Brian Dixon, MPA, project manager for Regenstrief’s SSA contract.

To effectively make decisions regarding applications for disability, the SSA needs the same kind of medical information that physicians utilize when making diagnoses, treatment, and referral decisions. Healthcare providers in Indiana rely on the INPC to securely and privately share clinical data which is utilized daily to support healthcare services throughout Indiana.

“Facilitating the processing of patients’ disability claims is another example of how healthcare providers throughout Indiana have worked together with the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana Health Information Exchange to ensure that their patients’ healthcare information is used to enhance their care,” said J. Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D., director of medical informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, Regenstrief Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and president and C.E.O. of the Indiana Health Information Exchange.

Disability benefits determination is a large-scale process. The SSA expects to receive more than 3.3 million disability benefits applications in fiscal year 2010, a 27 percent increase over the 2008 fiscal year. Annually, more than 15 million requests for medical records are sent to healthcare providers.

When you apply for Social Security Disability, you are stating that you cannot do an 8 hour a day job 5 days a week. If you have posted your resume seeking work, some might conclude that you really think you can work. The old adage “you cannot have your cake and eat it too” comes to mind. Some will conclude that you really are not disabled and you are only using the Social Security Disability system to provide you a means of support while you are looking for work. After all, if you cannot work, why would you be posting your resume seeking work?

Perhaps you posted a resume on line shortly before you became disabled. Have you forgotten about it? Did you remember to remove it from the site when you became unable to work? Even if you did, can it still be retrieved from the web?

Much has also been made in the news media about potential employers looking at social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace to see what they can learn. If someone might research you, what might they learn about you at these sites? If you participate in an online chat group, how might your comments be misconstrued? Also, if you are posting all the time, what might that say about your computer skills and your ability to concentrate? Do not assume that the postings are private because it is a disease support group web site. Who knows, your ALJ may actually belong to the support group and be reading about you.

There used to be an ALJ in Indianapolis that would state that he got on the SSA system the day before the hearing and personally ran the earnings records to see what it showed. He would then ask the claimant pointed questions about the latest findings. You need to be prepared to answer the ALJ’s questions about what the internet reveals about you. You may hear the ALJ begin a question with “I see on the web that…..”

The bad news is that the wait is still over two years long from the Request for Hearing. It is important that you keep seeing your doctor during your long wait so that your medical condition will be documented.

I recently posted that Indianapolis had dropped from 144th place out of 147 to 147th out of 147 (now the worst in the nation) with an average processing time of 896 days from the time of the filing of the Request for Hearing. Yesterday I posted on the Congressional Subcommittee that will be holding hearings to examine SSA’s management of its hearing offices and to explore measures that can be taken to improve productivity.

The hope is that by transferring cases from an Indianapolis judge to a judge in another office that  the cases will be heard sooner than if they stayed here with our Indianapolis Judges. Time will tell if this is how things really work out. There have been times in the past where cases where transferred out to other judges and by the time the case was heard and decided, no time was really saved.

Also, out of town judges are not familiar with our local physicians and hospitals and the way they do things. This can sometimes make a difference in how the out of town judge views the medical care that a claimant receives or the medical evidence. For example, if Doctor X is recognized in the local community as being THE expert on heart conditions to which all other doctors defer and the judge does not know this, the judge might not give as much importance to Doctor X’s opinion as he/she otherwise would if the Judge lived here and knew about Doctor X. In some cases, this could be very important.

The notice is not clear if the judge will actually travel here to Indianapolis or if the Judge will do the hearing by Video. Unless SSA has made improvements to the video equipment that it used in the past, I can not recommend video hearings. I had one client that was desperate for a hearing and the medical evidence was very, very strong. She could not wait any longer and we did a video hearing. The quality of the picture was so poor that if I had to pick out of a line up the judge that conducted the hearing, I would have to guess as I could not clearly see her features. I have been told that the more technically inclined judges can figure out how to control the camera at their end and adjust the focus and can zoom in to see the cliamant—I just have no way of knowing if that judge I have never seen before has the technical expertise to adjust the equipment so that the judge can really see my client. The picture is not “high definition TV” quality. I was not impressed. Some attorneys love it.

Indianapolis still needs more judges and support staff. Hopefully SSA can find the money to hire both for our Indianapolis hearing office. All of our Indianapolis hearing office employees are working as hard as they can. Hopefully this transferring of cases will benefit the claimants by causing their hearings to be heard sooner than if the case was left with our judges.