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Originally Posted by rlj1959
I also found this last night. There is a new computer program out there called Surescripts. The VA and other medical facilities is already deep into trying this program. What it does is give any doctor anywhere in the country access to all your medical history. All your records, lab reports, x-rays and prescriptions would be just a few clicks away. Me being from Alabama for instance, if I went to California on a trip and I had an accident requiring emergency medical treatment. The ER doctors would simply log onto this program. They would have immediate access to everything ever written about me medically.
Do you realize what this could mean for SSDI claims if the SSA would install it in their system? They would have everything they needed right there in front of them in a few seconds to make a dicision. They wouldn't have to wait for days, weeks or months to gather your records. They wouldn't have to pay god knows how much to some strange doctor who knows nothing about your medical history for a physical. They could look at this info and base their decision on what your own doctor says. They could look at all your medical problems and not just one. These decisions could be made at field offices by trained case workers instead of sending everything from office to office and loosing half the documents along the way. And most important, a decision could be made in days or weeks verses the months or years it now takes. This would put an end to all the pain and suffering that a claimant has to endure now. This would also stop bogus claims. If someone went into a SSA office and said that they can no longer work for what ever reason, the case worker could look at there medical records right then and see there is nothing in there about whatever reason. Then the case worker could tell the claimant in a nice way, I'm sorry but there are no medical documents to back up your claim and it would be over. I think the federal government should force the SSA to use this program in their decision making process.
Here is a link to the article if you want to read it.
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/hea...-records_N.htm |
So people who don't have insurance and have little to no medical records should not qualify for disability benefits? Sorry, you are denied because you can't afford to see a doctor. I don't think that is a good idea. And what about the doctor's office that haven't bought into this program? People who see those doctors should be denied because their records are not electronic?
And if you believe that the only people filing what you call bogus claims are those with no medical records, you are incorrect. There are people who work for years with medical problems and only stop when they can't drag themselves to work anymore. Then there are people who call in sick over any minor problem and think that someone owes them money because of an inconvenience. And on the claims that take 'years', a decision was made in the beginning that they were not disabled. It takes years because of the appeal process. A person may believe they are disabled, but it doesn't mean that their problems meet the legal definition.
And 90% of the disability files are now electronic so there is no travel time for the folder to go to another office and all the documents are available to anyone who looks at it. Electronic claim files don't get lost and can be transferred instantly to anywhere in the country. So if one part of the US has a big backlog (because of state furloughs) another part of the US can take that work on. SSA is already gets some medical files through an electronic system.
Also, your local office has a great deal more business to take care of on a daily basis that is not related to a finding of disability. If the disability analysts were physically moved to the local office, your local office would probably have to move to a new building to be able to house the new employees. I do think that the disability analyst should be a federal employee and not a state employee, but the logistics of changing that are immense.
I do think that we are in the electronic era and can't stop the ball from rolling downhill, but I am a little bit nervous about the amount of personal information about me that is readily available to so many people.