Lisa De Soto At NOSSCR Conference -- 140,000 Unexpected Requests For Hearing!

Lisa DeSoto, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Miami. I will summarize only those things she said that sounded like news to me, with my comments in brackets and italicized following.

• The Social Security Administration is receiving 140,000 more requests for hearing this fiscal year than expected. [This is stunning news. This changes everything. Social Security had a plan that, if you squinted hard and really wanted to believe, would eliminate the backlog of cases awaiting a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) by 2013. That plan does not begin to solve the backlog with this increased number of requests for hearing. By my rough calculation, Social Security now needs 250 more ALJs than they previously thought. There was no sign that Social Security's plans have changed a bit to deal with this new fact. Has anyone mentioned this to the Congressional committees involved?]
• There are no longer any cases that have been awaiting a hearing before an ALJ for 1,000 days or longer. [But the total number of people who are waiting for an ALJ hearing has to be rising rapidly because of those 140,000 unexpected requests for hearing.]
• There were 28,623 cases in which claimants had been awaiting 900 days or longer for an ALj hearing, as of May 31, 2008. De Soto wants that number down to zero by the end of the fiscal year -- September 30, 2008. [But the total number of people who are waiting for an ALJ hearing must be rising rapidly because of those 140,000 unexpected requests for hearing.]
• Approximately 17,000 claimants have been approved as a result of informal remands, also known as re-recons.
• Informal remands, also known as re-recons, will be extended to e-files.
• As of May 31, 2008, there have been 14,974 senior attorney decisions.
• The prognosis for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2008 is "not positive." De Soto emphasized the near certainty that the agency will be operating under a continuing resolution until well into the fiscal year as a reason. [It will certainly be difficult for the agency to work under a continuing resolution for what may be six months, but the 140,000 requests for hearing that no one planned for may be an even bigger problem.]
• There are now five ALJs in the national hearing center in Falls Church, VA. They are helping out with cases from Cleveland, Atlanta and Detroit. She plans to add five more ALJs to this national hearing office.
• A second national hearing office is to be added in Albuquerque. This office is to have six ALJs.
• 73% of the the cases pending upon requests for hearing was e-files by March 2008.
• The Forms Integrated Templates (FIT) that may be used to draft favorable decisions by attorneys representing claimants is now available in MS Word on Social Security's website.
• E-pulling of exhibits is about to be implemented in Tupelo, MS on a pilot basis. De Soto claims that e-pulling of exhibits is 80% accurate. [Everyone I have talked other than De Soto has rolled his or her eyes when the subject of e-pulling came up. Skepticism about e-pulling is nearly universal in the field.]
  
• E-scheduling of hearings is to be in place nationally by October 2008. [It would be nice to get e-files truly working before we go on to "E" anything else.]
• There will be 60,000 more ALJ dispositions this year than last. [But the 140,000 unanticipated increase in the number of requests for hearing completely overwhelms the 60,000 increase.]
• Social Security is "aware" of a need for a better network of Vocational and Medical experts.
• De Soto wants new regulations in the near future regarding the Disability Review Board in Region I, to allow the Appeals Council to dispose of these cases. [This is part of the fallout from the demise of former Commissioner Barnhart's doomed plan for dealing with Social Security's backlogs]