NHIN going live early next year for SSA

Brace yourselves, people: the Nationwide Health Information Network will be working to earn its pay starting early next year.

The first real-world test won't be of direct clinical impact like the Health and Human Services Department had hoped, but it will still be beneficial. The plan is to give the Social Security Administration access to electronic medical records held by a private health information exchange. The SSA will then use those records to give quicker benefits to qualified beneficiaries of disability assistance.

The first test will be performed using a federal NHIN gateway to get information from an HIE called MedVirginia, which is based in Richmond, VA. After that, it appears it will quickly rollout to North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, and also Kaiser Permanente.

The SSA hopes that this will dramatically increase the speed at which they can process claims applications.

To learn more about the test:
- read this Government Health IT piece

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