Social Security, VA Join Forces

The Department of Veterans Affairs is partnering with Social Security to speed up applications for Social Security disability by sending personal medical information over the Internet. They’ll send this information via the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Program. The VA currently sends health info to 775 hospitals, 427 health centers, 142 nursing homes, 8,441 pharmacies and nearly 12,000 clinics. Social Security now joins the list of recipients of personal health data. If you ever see a community health-care provider, you’ll be asked to sign a Form 10-0485 giving permission for your information be shared with the VA over the Internet.

Here are a couple of Q&As from a brochure about the program:

* Can I choose to share only certain part of my health information? No, at least not right now.

* Is my information secure? Yes, because it is sent through the Internet using The Sequoia Project’s eHealth Exchange. It’s a national network for secure sharing of medical information that covers 50 percent of all hospitals in the U.S. Here’s what I would like to know:

* If the VA and SSA are now working together, will everyone have to sign that consent form to have medical information forwarded over the Internet to the Social Security offices?

* What about the medical opinions of outside doctors who were consulted for VA appeals? Will those files be included, and how?

* If the outside doctor’s opinion was used in the Social Security decision to provide disability benefits, will the VA then have to use that information in its own decisions?

* If only an electronic record at the VA exists, how is the veteran to see what is being sent to Social Security? If you want to know more about this, go online to www.va.gov/VLER