Is E-Pulling E-Failing?

I had posted this earlier, but it was hidden in a much longer item. Let me pull it out for emphasis. From the statement of Kathy Meinhardt, Principal Executive Officer for Federal Managers Association Chapter 275, Social Security Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Federal Managers Association (FMA), Minneapolis, Minnesota to the House Social Security Subcommittee:

Much of ODAR’s promise of increased efficiency is tied to the success of the ePulling initiative. According to the IG report, the pilot is being expanded to five hearing offices and the NHC. Rollout to additional offices is dependent on the performance of the software at the pilot locations. Minneapolis is one of those five hearing offices. We are only eight weeks into the pilot, but at this point, the process has been very time consuming and has slowed the staff down by more than 50 percent. We at FMA believe that many staffing decisions are being considered assuming the success of this initiative. We would caution that its success and ability to deliver significant numbers of folders for ALJ review anytime in the near future is overly optimistic.