KVOA in Arizona reports on how Social Security's hearing backlog for disability claimants is affecting one woman struggling to get. The local Republican Congresswoman calls the wait "ridiculous." She's also written a letter to the Acting Commissioner of Social Security.
Hold DDS accountable for denials. Period!
ReplyDelete4:37 - you imply DDS denials are incorrect, but what is this based On? Claims that are correctly denied will still be appealed.
ReplyDeleteSeems the ALJs are agreeing with DDS by the number of denials. Not all conditions meet required levels. You may have a condition, a disability, but not severe enough. Every ALJ denial is proof that DDS got it right.
ReplyDelete@6:29 and 10:12
ReplyDeleteThe average award rate of the Tucson ODAR office, where the story is located, is 56%. The state average is 44%. This should be an embarrassment to DDS, or at least AZDES. These figures also ignore reversal by the Appeals Council and by the Courts.
I would normally blame DDS for their errors, but given the state's primary measurement is the rate of award at reconsideration, that being any award is a demerit on DDS's record as this lowers their "accuracy rate" I blame the state government.
10:58 again,
ReplyDeleteI meant to add, there is something odd about her hearing not even being scheduled after 18 months. I only recall a single case taking that long, and that was because the local field office ignored literally dozen requests for hearings, even 2 that were hand-delivered.
The average time in Arizona, in my experience, is that a hearing is scheduled after approximately 15 months with 90 days notice meaning her hearing should have occurred at approximately 18 months.
Look, we can all agree the process is a complete crock of sh-t when a supposedly objective system of evaluating disability results in individual ALJs within the same geographic area (hearing a sufficiently large enough number of cases) having wildly differing pay rates. That phenomenon, in and of itself, shows that ALJs are not applying the law uniformly and that the Agency isn't doing a good job of ensuring they are.
ReplyDelete