Social Security moves to connect with PPACA hub

By Allison Bell

July 3, 2013

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is getting ready to feed information into the system the federal government will use to decide which people are eligible for government health plans and insurance purchase tax subsidies.

The SSA has talked about the plans in a new "proposed routine use" notice.

The notice is set to appear in the Federal Register Friday.

The federal Privacy Act of 1974 requires the SSA to publish a notice in the Federal Register whenever it adds a new "routine use" for SSA program records system.

The notice must describe the users of the information and the purpose of the new routine use.

PPACA requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to develop a streamlined eligibility determination system.

The system will help officials decide whether children are eligible for Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans and whether adults or families are eligible for Medicaid, tax credits that can be used to pay for "qualified health plans" (QHP) purchased through the new PPACA health insurance exchange system, and other "insurance affordability programs."

The SSA wants to let the CMS PPACA eligibility determination system, or "data hub," use the Social Security "enumeration system" -- the master files of Social Security number holders and Social Security number applications.

The SSA also wants to give the hub access to the SSA Earnings Recording and Self-Employment Income System, the Master Beneficiary Record and the Prisoner Update Processing System.

Comments on the new proposed routine records use are due Aug. 31.

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