From a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):
SSA [Social Security Administration] efforts have not been successful in eliminating the pending hearings backlog nor reducing APT [Average Processing Time] to 270 days. As of March 2015, SSA had about 1 million claims awaiting a decision, and the APT was approximately 450 days. We have identified four factor s that contributed to this worsening situation: (1) an increase in hearing requests, (2) a decrease in administrative law judge (ALJ) productivity, (3) a decrease in senior attorney adjudicator decisions, and (4) a recent decrease in the number of available ALJ. ...
ALJ productivity decreased by 14 percent from FYs 2012 to 2014. ...
After we provided our draft report to Agency managers, they shared the Agency’s eight-point tactical plan outlining SSA’s priorities through the end of FY 2016. One of the plan’s goals was to reduce pending hearings by (1) increasing adjudicatory capacity, (2) improving process and decisional quality, (3) increasing accountability and the focus on aged cases, and (4) leveraging technology improvements. This tactical plan included 35 initiatives. We determined 21 of these 35 initiatives were variations of the initiatives we discussed earlier in the report. Among the other new initiatives, ODAR planned to conduct pre-hearing conferences using SAAs [Senior Attorney Advisors], establish judge-only video hearing sites, and reconsider an earlier regulation stipulating that evidence must be provided 5 days prior to a hearing. The Agency was still finalizing performance measures related to this new tactical plan. ...The elements of the tactical plan listed are laughably inadequate. Senior attorney decisions could help a lot but they're only talking about pre-hearing conferences. To use a tired metaphor, this is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The problem, in addition to an inadequate budget, is that Social Security is far more worried about accusations that they're "paying down the backlog" than they are about the backlog itself.
9 comments:
"Paying down the backlog" is what engendered Congressional hearings on "outlier ALJs" most recently. It's the Republican Congress putting pressure on SSA, and Congress is more worried about too many favorable decisions than claimants getting denied or waiting for years for a hearing. The agency responding to the current Congressional climate, until SSA leaders get hauled up on the Hill to testify about the out of control backlogs again, the agency will be focused on "quality", no "outliers" issuing 1000+ FFAVs a year and of course, "waste, fraud and abuse", instead of backlogs.
locking the record 5 days prior to the hearing will go a long way in shortening average processing time. My guess is that about 35% of the cases in my office are delayed, waiting for records after the hearing...typically for at least 30 days.
Don't forget the everything that relates rule. How does one lock the record predecision, ever, with that standard? What about the appointment 1 day before the hearing? 14 days? 30 days? Especially since HIPAA allows providers 30 days to make response what other option is there? Subpoenas? That won't add to backlogs...
Better trained ALJ's would help. I ran into an ALJ in AZ that shouldn't been an ALJ who got all facets of the law wrong and added to the backlog. AC was not amused with the ALJ to say the least.
Anon 6:53
Seriously. A hearing is requested in December 2013 and heard in October 2015. According to this comment, its all because of a thirty day hold to obtain medical evidence that the case, now nearly two years from when requested, that is the problem.
The average decision is written now in at least 60-90 days whether additional evidence is being submitted or not.
My case was post dated from year to the next. it mentions the backlog and that was in the mid 90's. Besides crossing out the application date, my application went from SSDI to SSI. There's a lot of scurrilous underhanded instructional activity that come form the top of the SSA with obvious approval from the congress to just to delay and deny and shortchange the recipient for as long as possible no matter the fraud involved. I would be remiss to state that I was the only that this happened to, I wasn't and injured/ill/disabled workers are a perfect target to defraud because they don't get anything else like worker compensation benefits as much as most people are told otherwise. The fraud that goes on is never addressed by congress because it would be telling on itself and that the unions aided and abetted with their contract language and their positions on the Labor and Health and Human Services Board besides the U.S Treasury and SSA boards also. We've been sold out by our very own even though we paid their salaries via taxes and union dues.
Hope at the very least they all rot in hell for all the hell they caused on so many, including our vets.
One day soon enough , it'll all come out as to just how cruel, devious they are as well as playing with American lives. NERB folks sure know how to help manipulate the figures and congress sure knows how to rob from one group to give to another and thus never needing to raise the necessary taxes on corporations or the wealthy who helped create the unhealthy and unsafe working conditions that caused many baby boomers to have to seek SSA benefits so early in life. This was our "gold watch" cause we didn't get our pensions either, another manipulation by D.C. legislators to help the corporate wealthy.
As I've told many injured/ill/disabled workers many years ago. This was all part of a plan. And it was.
Pre-hearing conferences w SAAs mean settling cases w no need for a hearing. A typical thing in both criminal and civil cases in the real world. No need for a judge to get involved till the end when s/he signs the papers... A whole bunch of disability cases can be dismissed, AODs amended, and close period or contuing disability awarded w no need for a hearing. SAAs meet w reps and that it. If they r not rep'ed we can do it the "old way" - go to your hearing... Only "contested" cases (yeah, I know very well we have "non-adversarial" hearings but let's face it, they are often so poor that people come to them w no prima faciae case stated/shown, no objective evidence to support most of their outrageous claims, etc. - so, yes, they turn to be "adversarial" or we would just rubber stamp every claim filed by the clt and/or their reps - which many do anyway LOL...) should go before ALJs.
8:57 -- you seriously misstate/overestimate the things SAAs could legally do (let alone what SSA will let them do) during these pre-hearing conferences.
@ 4:51: SAAs can't do pretty much anything these days but being employed as glorified typists, the same as other DWs, w and w/o law school diplomas and bar memberships... But things will change soon. There will be a legal basis for it as much as there is already a dire need for it. Otherwise, what would b a purpose of prehearing conferences? Talking about missing MER, dates and times of hearings, how particular ALJs r or should b - or maybe weather?
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