OIG On Compassionate Allowances And Quick Disability Determinations

     The summary of a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

Although 25 percent of allowed claimants in our sample [who were granted a Compassionate Allowance or Quick Disability Determination] died within 3 months of submitting their application, SSA’s CAL [Compassionate Allowance] and QDD [Quick Disability Determination] initiatives enabled the Agency to identify and expedite benefits to these disabled claimants before their death.

Based on our review, we estimated that SSA medically allowed about 76,000 and denied about 6,000 cases. As of June 2015, we estimated that, of the cases selected for CAL and QDD processing, about 

• 54,000 claimants were deceased; 
• 15,000 claimants allowed benefits were alive, were in current pay status, and had received approximately $214.1 million in benefits per year;
• 7,000 claimants allowed benefits were alive but did not meet Title XVI non - medical eligibility criteria. SSA stopped the ir Title XVI payments of approximately $34 million per year; 
• 3,000 claimants allowed had benefits ceased because of medical improvement, stopping payments of approximately $46.1 million per year; and 
• 3,000 claimants denied benefits, appealed or reapplied, and were subsequently approved. 

In addition, we estimated that, for about 13,000 claimants previously allowed benefits, SSA assessed approximately $43.9 million in overpayments and recovered approximately $15.9 million. Finally, we estimated that SSA reviewed approximately 22,000 allowance cases by conducting a CDR or redetermination and generally evaluated earnings for disabled individuals whose record contained work activity or income.