Novant Health has begun giving the Social Security Administration (SSA) access to appropriate patients’ health information through Epic’s Care Everywhere to assist with social security claims, officials recently announced.

The access allows SSA to quickly and securely perform a patient search, review a patient’s medical history and confirm or deny a patient’s physical or mental disability claim, a Novant Health news release said.

The health care system, which is based in Winston-Salem, operates the Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center.

By connecting SSA to Care Everywhere, the time required to request and receive medical records for the determination of eligibility for disability benefits has been reduced from weeks or months down to minutes, the news release said.

“Since implementing Novant Health’s electronic health record, we have created efficiencies that have brought about positive changes for our patients, including improved coordination between our physicians and external health organizations,” Dave Garrett, Novant Health senior vice president and chief information officer, said in the release.

“Connecting to the Social Security Administration will only broaden those successes and enhance our patients’ experiences with our system and team members.”

Novant Health adopted an electronic health records from Wisconsin-based Epic, the same company that provides the system for New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

New Hanover Regional and Novant Health are both on Epic’s Care Everywhere network, a tool that allows for secure exchange of patient records between providers.

The efficiencies created by connecting with SSA through Epic’s Care Everywhere now allow Novant Health patients to be notified of SSA’s disability decisions faster, officials said. In addition, if approved they can begin receiving disability payments and can automatically be enrolled for Medicare benefits in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, the release said.

“Novant Health is committed to making care as easy and convenient as possible for our patients,” Garrett said.

“Through the interoperability provided by Epic’s Care Everywhere and connections in the health information exchange, Novant Health can ensure our patients’ medical records are easily and securely accessed – so our patients can receive care when and where they need it most.”