ApeniMED, a Minneapolis-based provider of healthcare interoperability and NHIN connectivity, today announced the Community Health Information Collaborative's HIE-Bridge HIE moving into production status with interoperability to the U.S. Social Security Administration, using the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) via the ApeniMED NHIN Platform. HIE-Bridge is the State of Minnesota's only certified Health Information Organization (HIO), and the HIE-Bridge - Social Security project is part of a nationwide effort to use electronic medical records and NHIN to streamline the disability claims process.

The ApeniMED NHIN Platform is installed at HIE-Bridge, allowing HIE member hospitals to transmit an electronic medical record summary file, known as a Continuity of Care Document (CCD), when Social Security electronically requests information to verify disability claims. This electronic process is critical in improving patient care and speeding up disability benefit verification by transitioning hospitals and healthcare providers from a paper-based disability process to an electronic, automated process over NHIN.

The ApeniMED NHIN Platform will transmit thousands of electronic medical records for the HIE member hospitals each year. Social Security nationally requests more than 15 million medical records annually as it processes more than 3 million disability claims. Today, these records are sent to Social Security through the mail or by fax.

The national effort to increase the speed and efficiency of the Social Security disability verification process involves 12 HIEs nationwide. The Community Health Information Collaborative's HIE-Bridge is one of the 12 HIEs chosen by Social Security to participate.