The Office of Management and Budget has cleared for publication in the Federal Register a package of proposed regulations on the frequency and notice of continuing disability reviews. This is only a proposal. The public may comment on the proposed rules. This proposal had been pending at OMB since March 13. That's an extraordinary time for a proposal to be pending, suggesting that there may be something controversial in the proposal. This is Social Security's vague description of the proposal published in the Unified Agenda last Spring:
... The proposed regulations would add a new category to our existing medical diary categories that we use to schedule CDRs and would revise the criteria we follow to place a case in each of the categories. They would also change how often we perform a CDR for claims with the medical diary category for permanent impairments. These revised regulations would ensure that we continue to identify medical improvement at its earliest point and remain up to date with current research.
We are still not doing the CDRs that are already scheduled so I do not see much point in scheduling more if that is what they are suggesting
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is connected to the Huntington/Conn situation--figuring out a way to use the CDR process to deal with innocent claimants whose cases are tainted by the attorney or ALJ's fraud might be their way out of "the Mess."
ReplyDeletelikely plan is to make them more "automatic"...i.e. get away from the presumption that disability is permanent that is ingrained in the current system. It makes sense to have an automatic review for a 30-y/o person receiving benefits for back pain and depression.
ReplyDelete@3:52
ReplyDeleteThe presumption in the system is not that disability is permanent, it is that Social Security has the burden to prove medical improvement once disability is awarded.
The current automatic reviews which are meant to occur every 1 to 5 years also aren't limited to your non-existent example of a 30 year old getting benefits for "back pain and depression."