I heard today of a claimant's request for hearing being diverted to an "informal remand" review, also called re-recon. This is an effort to get strong disability claims approved without the long wait for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. This has been done in the past to help deal with the hearing backlog.
I have no idea how many of these will be done or what the criteria will be. I would caution that Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) has been doing Senior Attorney reviews, which are somewhat similar to re-recons, in the last few years but they have amounted to almost nothing because so few reviews have been done and because they have been done under such restricted standards that few claims could be approved. The Senior Attorney reviews done in recent years may have been a waste of staff time. We'll have to see if the agency has gotten past its fears of being accused of "paying down the backlog."
12 comments:
Hopefully DDS will make decisions where SAA and ALJ will not...
I think these are called informal remands or something similar. Yes, those have been done past and the goal is to find a way to grant, so it won't need to go to the alj level. Many were clearly allowances but the initial or recon got them wrong the first go around.
9:40 is correct, the remands back to DDS were usually in those case in which they failed to discuss a crucial issue in a case that should have been paid.
This is happening in New York City Queens County in the Flushing and Rego Park offices
Finally, they are making DDS accountable for some denials that should have never went to the ALJ level.
Charles, please do not rely on ODAR's smoke and mirrors purporting that the Senior Attorney Adjudication was a failure. It was a very good program for helping favorably adjudicate cases that met certain criteria, and reducing claimant waiting time. ODAR needs to bring back and expand Senior Attorney adjudication. Now, they are under-utilizing attorney talent. Many of us would be thrilled to develop cases and take action where possible, instead of writing decisions on underdeveloped/poorly reviewed file.
Back in July all the major news outlets reports a possible across the board cut in benefits for 2016. But I have not seen any further news on this. Are you aware of any updates?
Lon Wint3rs - where have you been? - read the Balanced Budget Act......
Anonymous 1:51 PM - you sound like a Senior Attorney wannabe.
Whey did the previous program fail? Because - apparently under the false belief that if they didn't reverse cases the program would be ended. So what happened is that the Senior Attorneys went wild and reversed everything. There was a very high error rate on their decisions - and therefore we have the status quo.
Anonymous @ 1:08AM, Your assertions about the Senior Attorney (SA) program are completely and utterly false. From what garbage bin did you obtain such scandalous misrepresentation? If you are an ODAR employee, you are a disgrace to the Agency, and even more so, if you are an Attorney or Senior Attorney.
I have been a Senior Attorney since the inception of the program in 1995 and it has always been a very successful program, in spite of attacks through the years from other factions within ODAR: 1) ALJ's who were simply jealous and believed SA's were wrongfully interfering with their turf; 2) ALJ's who believed SA's were getting all their reversals thereby causing their production numbers to go down because they had more time to concentrate on more complex affirmations, AC and Court Remands, and non-disability cases, which given the huge difference in salary, is really the way it should be; 3) A misguided 'Old Regime' top down management structure that for decades was competely and totally obsessed with production numbers of ALJ's, DW's, AA's, and SA's - Quality be damned, which resulted in a 'Garbage-in/Garbage-out' work product, i.e., many poorly written and adjudicated decisions (Garbage) going out each month only to come back again on AC or Court Remand for stupid, idiot mistakes which had the decision writer, ALJ, or Adjudicator spent a little more time and done right in the first place would have seemingly prevented this never ending perpetual backlog of cases; 4) 'Old Regime' managers who were more focused on, "Asses in seats," monitoring minute comings and goings of employees on breaks, persistently harassing employees over such petty things, were recalcitrant for years to more flexible forms of work whether it be flexi-place, working 9 hours a day for 2 weeks and getting a day off (5-4-9 plan), working four 10 hour days a week with a day off, or allowing telework in general, and if so, numerous variations in how many days a week it would be permitted, not to mention privacy issues in that some of these 'Old Regime' managers believed it necessary to constantly physically monitor some non-favorite, non-crony employees homes and places of telework, or via IT systems management monitoring through an employees laptop without the knowledge of the employee, which often interferes with the functioning of said laptop; and 5) the decision made by 'Old Regime' managers and the unions in the year 2000 to promote through the ranks from the old typist position all the way to Paralegal decision writer without any educational or writing requirements/samples and pay these individuals the very same salary as Staff Attorneys!
Recently, the Quantity verses Quality pendulum has swung the other way. Even though this has contributed to the backlog, it is finally movement in a positive direction for ODAR. Nevertheless, ODAR continues to vastly underutilize its Attorneys, and refuses to recognize the historical success the Senior Attorney program was for so many years despite frequent attacks from various factions within ODAR through the years which resulted in the program being chipped apart bit by bit to the point where the Senior Attorneys were extremely restricted in the duties they could perform, i.e., ordering necessary evidence, ordering appropriate CE's, confering with claimants counsel, preparing and sending out VE or ME interrogatories, etc., things Senior Attorneys could perform when the program began in 1995, but were chipped off through the years. Unfortunately, until members of the 'Old Regime' management cadre and those who have returned as re-employed annuitants are removed from the power positions they continue to hold, I am afraid change in a positive direction will continue in the current snails pace.
2:45PM you make some interesting observations but if indeed you are one the few SA's left - you really have blinders on.
read the independent reviews and OIG audits of the cases. High % of cases allowed without substantive legal findings from the actual evidence. Most of the independent reviews including ACUS point to 20% of the ODAR decisions are not supported by the evidence or citations of law or regulations.
what 1:08 AM wrote (not me) - is pretty much from the GAO and OIG reviews that have been published.
read some of the pending whistleblower and grievances on working hours.......ODAR staff absent for hours for lunch on work in the office days - and unreachable by phone or e-mail on work at home days.
You are absolutely right on several of your other reports of management issues.
However the system is fractured in many areas. Why should senior attorneys be getting evidence or exams? If the reps don't want to do it - the cases should be sent back to the states to do that job. Doing conferences and prepping the files or working with MEs and VEs is legal clerk work - not senior attorney work.
Please tell the Hall audience what other administrative appeal system in this country has the appeals judges/lawyers getting evidence? An appeal should be based on what exists in the prior decision not a new starting application.
So U asked a simple question and was directed to read the balanced budget act for the answer, then got a bunch of emails that seemed to be directed toward me, but they weren't, and they contained a bunch of comments that I have no idea what is being talked about. What I'm trying to say is, this is a crappy commenting system and thanks for nothing for the non-response.
Thank you 11/26 2:45 p.m. for pointing out the details about how the senior attorney program was attacked from within.
11/26 10:26 p.m.- post the links for the OIG audits/reports and ACUS findings, please. Let's discuss.
11/26 1:08 a.m.- I'm not so much a Senior Attorney wannabe, rather a wannabe an attorney of any sort with an agency that values accurate and timely adjudication in a legal framework, with leadership from licensed attorneys qualified to make legal determinations.
Signed,
11/25 1:51 p.m.
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