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Healthcare organizations using Epic Systems' electronic health records can now share patient medical records with the U.S. Social Security Administration instantly, under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement to help accelerate disability benefit determinations, the company said.
WHY IT MATTERS
Secure exchange through health information exchanges has long helped SSA make benefit determinations up to 50% faster, Epic said.
The EHR vendor's customers have shared more than 11 million records with SSA over the past 15 years through networks such as Carequality and the eHealth Exchange, including nearly 500,000 people last year, according to an announcement Wednesday.
But now, the following health systems are sharing records with SSA through TEFCA:
- AltaMed of Los Angeles, California
- Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services of Shawnee, Oklahoma
- Overlake Hospital Medical Center of Bellevue, Washington
- Saint Francis Health System of Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Valleywise Health of Phoenix, Arizona
"TEFCA provides a new, streamlined option for data exchange with SSA that will improve outcomes for millions of people by making it easier for more organizations to connect," Rob Klootwyk, Epic's director of interoperability, said in a statement.
Many other systems using Epic's EHR, including MetroHealth System of Cleveland, Ohio, that have exchanged data with SSA through HIE networks, say it's been beneficial for patients.
As a result, disability benefits approvals have happened quickly – in one case, within one business day of submission, recalled Dr. David Kaelber, MetroHealth's chief health informatics officer.
"Interoperability makes it possible for people to receive SSA benefits much faster, allowing them to focus on getting well, managing chronic conditions and planning for the future," said Kaelber in a statement included in Epic's announcement.
Faster access to disability benefits has significantly improved patients' health, according to OCHIN.
"Secure interoperability with SSA measurably improves the health of patients with disabilities in the OCHIN network," said Jennifer Stoll, OCHIN's chief external affairs officer. "This initiative drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to ensure patients receive much-needed resources to support their health and wellbeing."
THE LARGER TREND
After TEFCA's launch three years ago, the first cohort of health systems, including Mount Sinai, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser, Johns Hopkins and Stanford Health, joined Epic's Qualified Health Information Network, Epic Nexus.
Within two years, Epic said that more than 1,000 hospitals and 22,000 clinics were exchanging patient data through TEFCA.
This past year, the EHR giant partnered with HealthEx and others to launch a patient authentication platform through TEFCA's Individual Access Service, enabling patients to access their medical records from all providers and healthcare organizations.
For SSA, making the secure retrieval of patient records more seamless to speed up the claims process has been an SSA goal that predates TEFCA.
When it first formed a partnership with Cerner, now Oracle Health, SSA said it requested more than 15 million medical records from 500,000 providers each year, and that it was the leading cause of delays in determining disability benefits.
Government leaders said recently that TEFCA remains an important part of the nationwide interoperability strategy. It's complementary to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's new Health Technology Ecosystem initiative, which launched in 2025 with a focus on FHIR and consumer-mediated exchange.
"They both serve a specific purpose," Dr. Thomas Keane, National Coordinator for Health IT, said in a session in March at HIMSS26. "It's almost like [the CMS ecosystem] is this massive connectathon: 'Let's try it, test it, figure it out, make sure that it's working, and that it's operating and you're going to help to scale,'" he said.
"Where TEFCA looks to be a rising tide that lifts all boats, networks that have pledged to be a CMS-Aligned Network are more like speedboats shooting out ahead to achieve specific milestones," added ONC Principal Deputy Steve Posnack.
ON THE RECORD
"By leveraging national interoperability frameworks like TEFCA and collaborating with [EHR] providers to receive patient records electronically, SSA's digital-first approach is ensuring that Americans receive the service and benefits they need, when they need them," Jay Ortis, SSA's chief of disability adjudication, said in a statement.
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
