Social Security to be First Government Agency to Use Nationwide Health Information Network
"The Social Security Administration announced today that it will be the first government agency to utilize the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Beginning in early 2009, Social Security will receive medical records for some disability applicants electronically through the NHIN gateway...

Through the NHIN, Social Security will have instantaneous access to medical records. This will significantly shorten the time it takes to make a disability decision and make the process more efficient. Social Security uses individual medical records when making a decision for more than 2.6 million people who apply for disability each year. To make those decisions, Social Security relies on doctors, hospitals, and others in the healthcare field to provide medical records in a timely fashion. The NHIN will help ensure records are received timely by making it easier and less labor-intensive for medical professionals to submit records."

Preliminary Estimates of Electronic Medical Record Use by Office-based Physicians: United States, 2008
"...In the 2008 mail survey, 38.4% of the physicians reported using full or partial EMR systems, not including billing records, in their office-based practices. About 20.4% reported using a system described as minimally functional and including the following features: orders for prescriptions, orders for tests, viewing laboratory or imaging results, and clinical notes. Comparable figures for the 2006 NAMCS, the latest available for the full survey, were 29.2% and 12.4%, respectively."