Social Security to Fund $24 Million in Contract for EMRs
Proposals due September 18, 2009
Questions about RFP due August 26, 2009
Detailed project description: http://www.fbo.gov.
Solicitation Number: SSA_RFP_10_1001
Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced  on Friday, August 7, 2009 “the availability of $24 million in contracts to provide the agency with electronic medical records to improve the efficiency of its disability programs…Social Security is looking for health care providers, provider networks, and health information exchanges to participate in its Medical Evidence Gathering and Analysis through Health Information Technology (IT) program.”

As Social Security Administration describes the program “MEGAHIT automates the process of requesting and receiving electronic health records from health care providers. In August 2008, we successfully partnered with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to provide a patient-authorized electronic health record release and accept an electronic health record response. In February 2009, we partnered with MedVirginia on the first production use of the NHIN to request and receive electronic health records. These highly successful initiatives, improved the speed and consistency of our disability decisions at our pilot offices. MEGAHIT generates administrative cost savings and may produce a significant reduction in costs of uncompensated care for our provider partners.”

Archived Federal Webinar on
“Social Security and Health IT: Get the Benefits you Deserve”
Introduction by Jim Borland, Special Advisor for Health IT, Office of the Commissioner, Social Security Administration
(Originally webcast on August 11, 2009) 
Above link to Webinar and background materials including
AmMedNews article (June 24, 2009) by Pamela Lewis Dolan: “Social Security says test proves benefits of health data exchange.”