Social Security has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve proposed regulations that would allow Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to hold hearings. The AAJs currently handle cases at the Appeals Council. When you combine this with the recent proposal that video hearings could be forced upon claimants you get an idea of what Social Security has in mind -- the end of Administrative Law Judge hearings. There would be some huge building housing AAJs working away in cubicles holding only video hearings. The AAJs would be subject to intensive review to make sure they tow the party line. Even though Social Security's centralized operations are the most troublesome parts of the agency in my opinion, Social Security management loves centralization. Few people in upper Social Security management have worked in the field. They just distrust field operations. They like putting their eggs in big baskets.
Really, does anyone think that the centralized payment centers, the teleservice centers and the Appeals Council are the most efficient parts of Social Security?
13 comments:
In a Post 9/11 era I doubt we'll see all ALJ's or AAJs in one centralized high rise skyscraper. You might as well replace the rooftop helipad with a bullseye.
Besides, an 8:30am EST hearing is 5:30am for claimants on the west coast and no judge at the AC is gonna hold Night Court.
It’s “toe the line”, moron
Bean counters at SSA must think forced video hearings are a good idea, when they either don't know or care what is being given up in terms of service quality, fairness, and accuracy.
I get it. There is a lot of pressure to alleviate the backlog and the people at SSA making the call on video hearings are the ones taking the heat. Forced video hearing proposals make it look like they are doing something to address the problem.
Forced video hearings is only one of several possible solutions to the backlog problem. The question is whether the increased number of forced video hearings (however many more that is) is worth both the cost and the drop in quality, fairness and accuracy engendered by the solution. SSA's goal and mission should be to provide fair and accurate decisions. While efficiency can be good, when it becomes an end in itself and causes one to drift too far from the goal and mission it loses its utility and harms those it was supposed to aid.
Decades old thinking rules.
If I can't physically walk into the space where you are, how can I manage you?
It is better for my career to put my 500 reports in a building where everyone can see them where the cost per square foot of office space is much higher than it is in Kansas or Alabama or whatever hellscape exists off the northeast coast of the US.
I'd rather pay more in locality pay for someone to work in DC or Baltimore and end up with someone who graduated "oh laudy" but wants to be on the coast than hire someone who has a better resume from some state school in Bugtussle, Tennessee who wants to in Nashville or Memphis.
Oh and local knowledge is irrelevant. True story. ALJ from one of these new and improved centers, berated a claimant for not seeking treatment at a free clinic after discovering via questioning there was a free clinic 10 miles away. The claimant stated she didn't have transportation and the ALJ scolded her for not taking the bus. There is no bus that goes three miles out of her small town (two of those miles down a dirt road) to pick people up and take them to the town in the next county. Appeals Council upheld it. District court sent it back with a blistering decision.
The backlog is dropping like a stone. Terrie Gruber sends out weekly e-mails to that effect. She even credited the ALJs corps in one of those e-mails. So someone should ask her to put a stop to this (Terrie, if you're reading). I mean, whoever sent the regs to OMB said that it's 'cause of the backlog, but Terrie herself says the backlog is at record lows. Both of those things can't be true at the same time. So, withdraw the proposed regs, and let the ALJs get on with their work.
What?!? The backlog is dropping? Rapidly?!? From the posts here one would think that the backlog is growing, we get at least one backlog story a week. What is this magic?
Oh that's right, the economy is doing okay, new filings are down.
Are there, you know, actual statistics showing that video hearings result in reduced "quality, fairness, and accuracy," or is that just rep-speak for "pay rates are lower"?
There are a few ways to view this, none good but some less evil than others. The agency in the post-Lucia world hasnt been able to make new hires and has not made public any plans to do so. Being the largest agency to employ ALJ's its reasonable to think that whatever plan they put into effect will spur litigation that may stop its ability to hire for the foreseeable future. giving AAJ's the power to conduct hearings fills that manpower gap. The ALJ corps is down around 150 ALJ's over the last 12 months, with 50 fresh retirements at the end of 2018.
This plus the move to mandated video hearings pretty much guarantees there is a footprint reduction plan moving forward to close existing hearing offices. receipts are down so much, we now have entire regions that close twice as many cases a month than they receive. nationwide receipts to dispositions ratio last month was over 150%. If I was in a small out of the way office, I would start to get very nervous.
I dont know how happy the AAJ corps would be with these ideas, I'd argue it, rather than, ALJ, is the best job in government. the pay is the same. Cases are prepped and reviewed by staff attorneys with recommendations, etc. AAJ's are more expensive than ALJ's on the whole since 95% of them are in DC and Baltimore with there higher locality pay rates.
the last time the agency brought this up, a Republican controlled congress told them to shelve it and never speak of it again, I doubt they will get a warmer reception in the current congress.
3:57 PM, Congress opposed that plan because the old AALJ opposed it, and had a good Republican-leaning lobbyist. That AALJ leadership got defeated last November, and got replaced with openly pro-management judges who fired the lobbyist and will probably support the AAJ proposal. If AALJ supports this new plan, Congress won't be induced to oppose it.
Please understand, the powers that be do not care about the ALJ or the Claimant. They care about their power, reputation, and bonus. View through this prism and all answers will be revealed.
"Are there, you know, actual statistics showing that video hearings result in reduced "quality, fairness, and accuracy," or is that just rep-speak for "pay rates are lower"?"
Where to even begin? SSA's quality control on decisions is kind of like a man with a blindfold on repeatedly saying they see nothing wrong on this issue. Inconsistent audio and video quality sometimes leading to miscommunication. ALJs not paying attention, looking distracted by their computers and other things. ALJs who seem emboldened by the fact that they are 1,000 miles away and are rude to claimants. ALJs without the slightest clue of the significance of local information important to understanding the claim. The fact that you often cannot effectively confront incredible expert testimony with documents when the ALJ and/or the VE are in a remote location. That's the tip of the iceberg for you. There's plenty more.
As an FO employee I can answer the question put forth in the article. No, payment centers and teleservice centers are not working. The former is too insulated from any accountability and the latter is some horrible mix of overworked and undertrained.
The referrals we get from the TSC on issues are overwhelmingly half-baked and wrong; the answers they give to the public (when they don't just punt and tell them to go into their FO) are completely ignorant of policy.
The PC is a place where our issues needing resolution go to die, in a vague morass protected by an opaque wall called the MDW. They take months to work critical issues, offer no explanation for the decisions they make, and sometimes screw the record up worse than what it was when they got it.
PC7 in particular is a tire fire. I cringe whenever I have to send a customer issue there.
The TSC is a disaster most of the time. Occasionally, someone helpful answers the phone. One would have hoped that it would have improved over the years, but it hasn't.
ALJ's who work a region and kind of know the doctors and the hospitals are better able to evaluate the evidence and the testimony of the claimant.
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