New GAO Report

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Social Security's implementation of the Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy program. Here is a summary:

SSA approved approximately 2.2 million Medicare beneficiaries for the low-income subsidy as of March 2007, despite barriers that limited its ability to identify individuals who were eligible for the subsidy and solicit applications from them. However, the success of SSA’s outreach efforts is uncertain because there are no reliable data to identify the eligible population. SSA officials had hoped to use Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax data to identify the eligible population, but the law prohibits the use of such data unless an individual has already applied for the subsidy. Even if SSA could use the data, IRS officials question its usefulness. Instead, SSA used income records and other government data to identify 18.6 million Medicare beneficiaries who might qualify for the subsidy, which was considered an overestimate of the eligible population. SSA mailed low-income subsidy information and applications to these Medicare beneficiaries and conducted an outreach campaign of 76,000 events nationwide. However, since the initial campaign ended, SSA has not developed a comprehensive plan to distinctly identify its continuing outreach efforts apart from other agency activities. SSA’s efforts were hindered by beneficiaries’ confusion about the distinction between applying for the subsidy and signing up for the prescription drug benefit, and the reluctance of some potential applicants to share personal financial information, among other factors.

In all fairness, Social Security was given a difficult task. There was no hope for a neat, seamless implementation, especially given Social Security's acute staffing shortages.