On May 5, 2018, the Division of PolicyNet Management (DPM) will implement PPS Release 1.0. PPS is the Agency application for authoring, editing, approving, and publishing policy and instructional documents to PolicyNet. ...Is PolicyNet available to the public? Of course, not. If you tell the public what the policy is, they're going to complain when the agency doesn't follow its own policy or they might complain that some of the policies are illegal or stupid. Besides, most of PolicyNet is really boring and the public won't be interested in most of it. A small amount of PolicyNet would be things Social Security really does have to keep secret, like how it spots identity theft. It's safer to keep it all confidential.
Come on, this is the public's business the agency is doing. Keeping policy secret if you don't have to is wrong. You could say the same things about POMS, the agency's general manual, but somehow the agency has survived just fine with POMS being available to the public.
PolicyNet is the internal repository for POMS, EMs, AMs, etc
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ReplyDeleteI thought technically PolicyNet is SSA's infrastructure supporting their access to POMS, EMs, AMs, etc.
It would be interesting to have access to PolicyNet as I could see the internal organization of how SSA reviews POMS, EMs, AMs, etc.
https://www.ssa.gov/foia/readingroom.html
ReplyDeletePolicyNet is POMS. It's just an electronic platform. Nothing secret going on here.
ReplyDeleteI use google to find stuff in POMS at work as it is faster than looking for it through policy net unless I know pretty much exactly where it is in POMS, EMs, etc.
ReplyDeletePolicyNet links to changes in POMS or HALLEX, or publishes Regional Chief Counsel opinions, and, as you say, information on handling fraud re-determ cases. If you're a rep who gets forwarded internal e-mails anonymously, you might think that PolicyNet is, National Treasure style, the "secret key" to "unlocking" Social Security, but it isn't. It's just an internal bulletin that most folks delete unread at 3 PM every afternoon. Spend more time screening your clients and less time worrying about punctuation changes in a seldom-used POMS provision.
ReplyDeleteWow. I'm disappointed at the level of misunderstanding of PolicyNet. Yes, it is a repository for POMS, EMs etc, but it contains many, many nonpublic resources including questions and answers on policy, unpublished POMS, training materials on agency policies, etc. The unpublished items are supposed to be sensitive or non-policy related, but I can assure you that they contain policy guidance. At the very least, SSA should be required to publish a list of the resources on PolicyNet. Surely the title of a document would not reveal too much.
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