Flip the coin. Post the agree rate. Drafts per day means little when they were trash and all coming back. The idea is that drafts are now better quality so you have to view productivity against agree rate.
Not so. AALJ and Coburn/Issa congressional contingent formed an unholy alliance against high producing ALJ's. They are all gone, and Colvin has been backed down from requiring production from ALJ's beyond what is comfortable for them. Everyone involved likes the slowdown in decision rates because less money is paid out to claimants and the balance sheet looks better.
It's just that nasty growing backlog that will eventually ruin the party. . .
It's yin and yang, quality vs quantity. Congress will never fund the agency enough for both, so pick one and watch the other suffer until Congress calls hearings about the other, and the pendulum will swing back.
Ha - the one time you choose to emphasize the forest instead of a tree. If you described this graph the same way you describe the gazillion other graphs you've posted of benefits paid, recipients in pay status, etc., showing a doubling over the years but an insignificant dip in the last month, you'd have headlined this one as "ALJ Productivity Is Climbing."
How much of this dip is due to the hiring of new judges who cannot be expected to be as productive as those who have been on the job for a while? The uptick in 2015 would certainly support that given that many of them have now been on the job more than one year.
Flip the coin. Post the agree rate. Drafts per day means little when they were trash and all coming back. The idea is that drafts are now better quality so you have to view productivity against agree rate.
ReplyDeleteNot so. AALJ and Coburn/Issa congressional contingent formed an unholy alliance against high producing ALJ's. They are all gone, and Colvin has been backed down from requiring production from ALJ's beyond what is comfortable for them. Everyone involved likes the slowdown in decision rates because less money is paid out to claimants and the balance sheet looks better.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that nasty growing backlog that will eventually ruin the party. . .
It's yin and yang, quality vs quantity. Congress will never fund the agency enough for both, so pick one and watch the other suffer until Congress calls hearings about the other, and the pendulum will swing back.
ReplyDelete8:38 Anonymous is dead on.
ReplyDeleteThe AALJ Union may have lost their ridiculous lawsuit, but they ended up winning the war.
Ha - the one time you choose to emphasize the forest instead of a tree. If you described this graph the same way you describe the gazillion other graphs you've posted of benefits paid, recipients in pay status, etc., showing a doubling over the years but an insignificant dip in the last month, you'd have headlined this one as "ALJ Productivity Is Climbing."
ReplyDeleteHow much of this dip is due to the hiring of new judges who cannot be expected to be as productive as those who have been on the job for a while? The uptick in 2015 would certainly support that given that many of them have now been on the job more than one year.
ReplyDeleteNo more claim folders stamped with a smiley face.
ReplyDelete