tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post373366135128605089..comments2024-03-28T10:15:57.792-04:00Comments on Social Security News: OIG Recommending New Tool For Evaluating Hearing Offices And ALJsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-32579468479143387462014-01-10T08:43:39.387-05:002014-01-10T08:43:39.387-05:00@12:04 PM, January 09, 2014 - Right on.
@12:17 PM...@12:04 PM, January 09, 2014 - Right on.<br /><br />@12:17 PM, January 09, 2014 - Maybe, maybe not. But no individual incorrect approval is devastating, while an incorrect denial in many cases is.<br /><br />Justin<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-56627990954835408952014-01-09T22:15:22.323-05:002014-01-09T22:15:22.323-05:00It's not easy to balance judicial independence...It's not easy to balance judicial independence and accountability. There does need to be a real way the system can flush out ALJs who perform poorly, chronically fail to follow the law, employ improper bias, etc. In the current system it is very difficult to enforce any such accountability, so it rarely happens. Unfortunately, that means the bad apples (thankfully few) can wreak a lot of damage.<br /><br />It's also desirable to protect ALJ independence, to avoid improper influence. From the outside looking in, I'd say the balance is tilted substantially in favor of independence and against accountability at present. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-29623569478374183312014-01-09T12:43:47.913-05:002014-01-09T12:43:47.913-05:00OIG tries so hard to make their 'findings'...OIG tries so hard to make their 'findings' seem relevant. A year from now they'll be asking the question, 'why have hearings wait times skyrocketed and what should SSA do about it?' It's always too little, too late from OIG. As pointed out above, their analyses are amateurish indeed. The agency employs an army of analysts and managers to keep the assembly line running smoothly and with high quality results. OIG's little forays into SSA management issues do one thing only: remind agency leadership that the overseers are watching - a good thing. But these auditors are not trained consultants or strategic thinkers - they're bean counters, not decision makers. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-91436262828526891042014-01-09T12:38:51.796-05:002014-01-09T12:38:51.796-05:00In other words you didn't answer the question ...In other words you didn't answer the question which is when will they start to go after the ALJs who hold mock hearings and have their own personal agenda instead of evaluating each claim on face value.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-61664469914507332912014-01-09T12:17:07.835-05:002014-01-09T12:17:07.835-05:00Considering the number of high payers is much grea...Considering the number of high payers is much greater than the number of high deniers and considering that the high payers cost the trust fund/taxpayers a significant amount of money, while high deniers do not, it seems the priority should be reining in the high payers; this would also lend more legitimacy to the disability program generally.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-47117726123949723702014-01-09T12:04:38.577-05:002014-01-09T12:04:38.577-05:00When are they going after the outliers on the bott...When are they going after the outliers on the bottom, the 80-90% denial ALJ'sAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-11310930542513918212014-01-09T11:32:11.852-05:002014-01-09T11:32:11.852-05:00They actually do explain the model...they took the...They actually do explain the model...they took the high and low ALJ's (for each category) in each office and then measured the difference.<br /><br />i.e. the high FF ALJ may grant 85% FF and the low FF ALJ may only grant 20%, resulting in a "variance" of 65. They did this for 5 factors and then totaled them.<br /><br />This is not statistically valid. Basically, one outlier in an office can skew the whole office. But if the goal is to identify outliers, this works. Not really useful, but what would you expect from SSA/OIG?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-76390816133209213122014-01-09T11:23:27.541-05:002014-01-09T11:23:27.541-05:00Yeah, the people running the new quality stuff at ...Yeah, the people running the new quality stuff at my region, at least, have no mathematical/statistical background whatsoever, and neither do the new folks they brought on board. It's cute that you can run excel spreadsheets and all, but if you don't know how to collect and analyze data in a way that actually shows what you are looking for, you're just wasting everyone's time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19246708.post-72207065199554415082014-01-09T10:27:12.566-05:002014-01-09T10:27:12.566-05:00This proposal stems partly from internal turf issu...This proposal stems partly from internal turf issues. ODAR (particularly the AC) has been playing around with data analytics (on an amateurish level) and in so doing has succeeded in "dazzling" agency officials who have no training and little knowledge about data mining. So now OIG is getting in the game as well. Every component is now acquiring a working knowledge of the new data buzzwords and collection tools.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com