The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued Additional Outreach and Collaboration on Sharing Medical Records Would Improve Wounded Warriors’ Access to Benefits, a report on Social Security's Wounded Warrior program which accelerates the disability process for those injured in military service. Some findings:
As of December 2008, about 7,600 of the16,000 wounded warriors who have applied for SSA disability benefits since 2001 have been approved. ... [A] sizable minority of approved claimants filed long enough after injury that they lost some retroactive benefits; SSA is considering a legislative proposal to change the retroactive period for wounded warriors. Among wounded warriors receiving DOD or VA disability benefits, 4 percent were receiving SSA benefits. In addition, more than 6 percent had applied but were not receiving SSA benefits; some still had claims pending. Those with higher disability ratings from DOD or VA were more likely to receive SSA benefits. ...I wish the wounded warriors all the best but I can think of no reason why their disability claims should get a longer retroactive effect than those of other claimants.
With help from DOD [Department of Defense] and VA, SSA has been able to expedite processing of wounded warrior claims. SSA has established a nationwide policy requiring its offices to give priority to wounded warrior claims. ...DOD’s paper-based transfer of medical records to SSA is slow, which can prolong the process by weeks or months, according to claims processing staff.
3 comments:
procedurally, it would be pretty simple and would not really constitute "special treatment"--just deem claims protectively filed at the point that the defense deparmment first receives notification that the individual has been wounded or injured. I dont't know what paperwork gets done, but a statement could be added to whatever it is to record intent to file for T2 benefits.
That's a good point about locking in the protective filing date based on a report of disabiity to DOD. All that requires is pre-printing some intent language on DOD's forms. However, SSA would have to change it's close-out procedures, wouldn't they? If I recall, the close-out period is 6 months for T2 and 60 days for T16. What would SSA do....leave these as open applications and not close them out in writing? That wouldn't require any legislative action...such "inaction" on behalf of the Agency.
The biggest reason is a wounded warrior may not file for a long time for a variety of legitimate reasons, including denial of the seriousness of injury, mental impairment(s) and location and treatment which spans continents and years. These are often traumatic injuries and it makes no sense to limit our most deserving citizens.
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