Marianna LaCanfora, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Retirement and Disability Programs, spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in Miami Beach. I will attempt to summarize only those things she said that seemed new to me and add a few comments in brackets and italicized.
- Social Security expects a 40% increase in retirement claims and a 10% increase in disability claims over the next ten years.
- In the next year or so, the "principal representative" (a term which she did not define) would be able to file claims for their clients as well as form 1696 online. The "principal representative" would be able to file form 1695 online and get a receipt. She hopes that this will become not only possible, but mandatory -- for represented claimants.
- Beginning in September 2008 Social Security will begin testing online attorney access to Social Security e-files. She hopes to make this generally available by early 2009. [Early 2009? I will believe it when I see it.]
- She wishes to introduce an automated system by which medical records are obtained automatically before claims files ever reach Disability Determination agencies for adjudication. A Harvard professor has convinced her that this is possible. [Maybe for one Boston hospital, but it is pure fantasy to talk about this happening generally at any point in the reasonably foreseeable future.]
- She expects far more Listings to be published in 2009. [I think that she needs a reminder that there will be a new President next year and that all rulemaking will be dramatically delayed as a result. If the new President is named Obama, everything in the pipeline will get a very detailed, skeptical examination.]
"The Appeal Council will be getting the capacity to handle e-files."
ReplyDeleteI wonder what "handle" might mean in this context. The Office of Appellate Operations has been working e-Dib cases on request for review for something like 18 months. At first these were a miniscule part of the workload. And up to about 3 months ago, working these cases involved using kludged up backdoor compromises. But systems changes 3 months back integrated OAO (and the AC) into the e-Dib system.
OAO and the AC are downstream from the ALJs. So the breaking edge of the tidal wave of e-Dib cases out in the hearing offices still has not yet swept through OAO and the AC. E-Dib cases are nonetheless common.
On any ordinary meaning of "handling," either Nancy Shor is misinformed, or CT Hall has mistranslated her comments.
JOA
"Claims files" reach DDS's instantaneously at the press of a key at the conclusion of a disability interview. How does she think the medical files will get there faster? Does she propose that the claims be held in the FO's until the medical files are sent to the DDS? There is no facility to send medical info to the DDS without a claim being sent. She must be completely out of touch with claims processing protocols. And she is an Assistant Deputy Commissioner?
ReplyDeleteThe higher you go, the less you know.