MEDfx Corporation, a leader in connected healthcare solutions, announced today that is has been selected as a pre-approved Social Security Administration (SSA) Disability eClaims technology provider to the Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN), the official state-designated entity for statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE). MiHIN will be offering MEDfx as one solution choice to hospitals and health systems through sub-state HIEs across the state of Michigan.
The SSA eHealth Exchange Gateway enables transmission of medical records for disability claims, which provides significant value in lowering costs, improving quality of service, and increasing patient confidentiality between the Social Security Administration and participating healthcare institutions across the state of Michigan. Through MiHIN's connection to the eHealth Exchange, sub-state HIE's and hospitals enabled with MEDfx can communicate patient records in response to the electronic requests from the SSA.
The MiHIN is a non-profit public/private collaboration, established by cooperative agreement between the Michigan State Health Information Exchange program and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology, a federal agency. Developed by and for physicians, hospital systems, health insurers and privacy officers throughout Michigan, MiHIN has been formally designated as Michigan's statewide HIE. The purpose of the MiHIN is to facilitate the secure electronic exchange of patient health information in order to improve healthcare quality, efficiency and patient safety while reducing healthcare costs.
Social Security Administration disability claims are growing at a rate of 11% a year, presenting a major administrative burden for the healthcare industry. In fiscal year 2011, the SSA received 3.3 million initial disability requests; in order to process its volume of new and existing claims, the SSA was compelled to request medical evidence data 15 million times nationwide. The average mid-sized hospital submits 400 medical records to the SSA by mail or fax every month, averaging 50 pages per submission.
"The ability to transmit disability claims information electronically will be of immense benefit to MiHIN participants," said Colin Berry, Chief Executive Officer, MEDfx. "We expect our eHealth Exchange SSA Gateway will bring a new era of efficiency and quality to those physicians, insurers, facilities and institutions who take part in the MiHIN HIE system."
Healthcare stakeholders in Michigan can sign up for the SSA eClaims service through MiHIN, and be introduced to MEDfx as a MiHIN-approved vendor to discuss the benefits of the eHealth Exchange SSA Gateway. This will also give hospitals, health systems and sub-state HIEs the opportunity to learn more about MEDfx's full portfolio of HIE/eHealth solutions, which can augment existing HIT investments in HIE and EHR solutions.
The MEDfx eHealth Exchange SSA Gateway (formerly known as the Nationwide Health Information Network) adapter was developed in cooperation with the ONC. It allows any MiHIN stakeholder to "plug in" directly into the national system and connect to the SSA for data transfer. As a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, the adapter requires a one-time setup charge and a recurring monthly fee.
Hospitals and other stakeholders using the MEDfx eHealth Exchange SSA Gateway through MiHIN's eHealth Exchange node can experience multiple benefits including increases in service, efficiency and quality; enhanced security, with less opportunity for data breach; cost reduction; improved ROI on the organization's HIE investment; and higher revenues through recovery of fees for uncompensated care.