I had
posted recently about the increasing backlogs I was seeing on Social Security disability claims at the initial and reconsideration levels. A friend was able to find the data from North Carolina, where I practice, and put it into a chart.
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You can see why I would be concerned.
My friend also charted the nationwide data but it doesn't paint the same picture:
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Don't think that this means there's not a growing backlog problem at the initial and reconsideration levels nationally. The number of disability claims filed has gone down dramatically. With the number of claims filed having gone down dramatically, you would expect to see dramatic reductions in the number of cases pending in the backlog. That hasn't happened. The only way the cases pending holds steady is if the time it's taking to get initial and reconsideration determinations is increasing. It's not happening nationwide so dramatically as in North Carolina but it's happening.
With all due respect, aside from the bizarre NC numbers, which very well may be an unfortunate outlier, this is poor analysis. Looking at the sheer numbers (or as best as I can estimate from the graph), the peak of the backlog was 850,000 pending in 2010 with a 2018 pending around 550,000, which represents a decrease of 35%. At the same time, applications dropped from a high of 2.94 million in 2010 to 2.07 million in 2018, which represents around a 30% reduction in the number of applications.
ReplyDeleteGranted, I'm not a math major, but it's hard for me to see how a 30% decrease is dramatic while a 35% decrease over that time is simply holding steady and not as dramatic.
Your NC stats certainly seem to support your experience in an increasing delay in DDS determinations. The national numbers do not suggest a national problem.
Mic Drop 8:57
ReplyDeleteAs a DDS examiner- 10 years in the trenches- I can assure you caseloads are going up in multiple states. What used to be an average caseload of 75-80 has swelled to 120-130+. Seems multifactorial, but mainly because state QA and DQB want absolute perfection and will find grey areas to disagree with. Allowing at initial, denying, overturning at recon, even CONTINUING CDRs- everything is hard right now. The pendulum has swung from production over to quality, but it's to the point of splitting hairs and over-complicating the process to the point of absurdity. Weighing subjective ADLs against objective findings is getting harder by the day. Instead of the claimant having the burden of proof to provide evidence/sources of their disabling condition, we are now essentially their primary care doctor and working up every ache, every wheeze, every report of fatigue. We are now ordering expensive tests and repeating PFTs on people who have never used an inhaler or nebulizer. Sending people to have every part of their body Xrayed because the ROM is reduced by 5 degrees. We must work up every condition and tease out all undisclosed sources we stumble upon in the MER or ADLs. FTC procedures are also dragging cases out much longer than in previous years, largely in part to certain shady reps...
ReplyDeleteSo... for every case that has 5-10 alleged impairments, 5 unalleged impairments, x 5 treating sources, + 5 more UNDISCLOSED treating sources, + 2 broken CEs, +2 10 day extensions on ADL forms, +10 more days to tease out all the details about their past work, x 120 claimants! By the time you finally get to a decision, QA or DQB has an issue with something because nothing is black and white. OH and you get 16 new cases on Monday.
Examiner morale is in the toilet and there is a mass exodus. Abandoned caseloads get added to the growing backlog and so the problem is just compounded. I absolutely love this job and take pride in being thorough and making good decisions... but I'm updating my resume as we speak.
9:53 Same happening on the ALJ end with AC review. Once the AC case screening software (Insight) got rolled out to ALJs there was no longer a reason for the AC to exist -- all the AC was, were data entry clerks for Insight, come to find out. Now that ALJs have the software and are making changes prior to signing, the AC is finding increasingly minuscule reasons for remand -- disagreements on minor judgment calls are the new errors of law. So remands are increasing at the precise moment that ALJ use of Insight should be decreasing the remands. Plus with management at the contract negotiating table telling AALJ that ALJs are the same as OHO customer service representatives, job satisfaction is also at a historic low. The ALJ count drops weekly and no new hires in two years.
ReplyDeleteBacklog increases at both DDS and OHO are as much from personnel loss or poor allocation of human resources as from anything else.