Senator Coburn Says ALJs Could Be Replaced With A Coin Flip

     Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) office has leaked the report to be given today to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on disability determinations at Social Security, which is supposed to reveal that "In more than a quarter of the cases, decisions to award benefits 'failed to properly address insufficient, contradictory, or incomplete evidence.'" Senater Coburn's response says that "I think you could flip a coin for anybody that came before the Social Security commission for disability and get it right just as often as the (judges) do." However, the report, apparently done by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) only " reviewed the cases to see if officials used proper procedures in making their decisions", did not talk to any of the claimants involved and did not "make any determinations about whether people got benefits they did not deserve."
     Here is the witness list for the hearing:

PANEL 1

• JUDGE  PATRICIA A. JONAS

  Appellate Operations Executive Director, Deputy Chair, Appeals Council,

  Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration

  Falls Church, VA
• JUDGE  DEBRA BICE

  Chief Administrative Law Judge

  Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration

  Falls Church, VA

PANEL 2

• JUDGE   DOUGLAS S. STULTS

  Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge

  Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration

  Oklahoma City, OK
• JUDGE   THOMAS W. ERWIN

  Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge

  Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration

  Roanoke, VA
• JUDGE   OLLIE L. GARMON, III

  Regional Chief Administrative Law Judge (Region IV)

  Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration

  Atlanta, VA