Please Support the Fullerton - Edwards Social Security Disability Reform Act!
 

Go to this website and read this.

http://www.zimbio.com/Fibromyalgia/a...ocial+Security

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.

I did not mean for this to sound like that, I understand that some people can't afford to go to a doctor. There are sources out there for these people and if a person is actually disabled it would be documented. Now whether or not SSA would accept this documentation, I don’t know. I believe that SSA should have to provide some kind of assistance to people in this category to see a doctor at no cost to the claimant. But you know as well as anyone else, there are some people that are not really disabled. They just can't find a decent paying job or they just simply don't want to work for a living. I personally know several people in this category that are healthy as a horse. And some of them even get SSDI benefits. This is whats clogging up the system. And in reference to some doctors not using this program; the federal government has put up billions of dollars in funding for hospitals and doctor's with private practices to upgrade their systems for the purpose of sharing medical information about their patients to other doctors and most of them are jumping up and down to get part of this funding. This program is supposedly secure so that only people with proper authorization can access it. As far as I'm concerned, I don't really care who can see my medical records, it's not like they could use it to steal my identity or use the info to hurt me in any way, I don't guess.

next will be a computer chip in your arm where you can be scanned and they will no EVERYTHING about you, what you buy, what you read, what party you belong to, any entry you made on the internet. I see unlimited potential for abuse of electronic medical records by employers, prospective employers, the government, insurance companies, marketing, pharmeceuticals etc.

Hey echoes they already have a proto type it's called TED. It only a matter of time before they can insert it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes...xth_sense.html

i feel more and more that the 21 century is not my century. ITs not my time anymore. If you would have told me in 1973 that we would go like sheep into this time of diminished privacy and personal freedom i would not have believed you.

Big Brother is watching !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

And Big Brother gets to feel you up if you go through airport security :p

When I looked at your link, I saw the article is from Dec. 2008. I doubt the Act is still in congress to support or not.

You are right. This is probably another case of me opening my big mouth without doing any research. It seems that I have become nutorious for this and I apoligize.