The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a voluntary organization of personnel involved in making initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has released its most recent newsletter. One thing I noticed is that it says that the Disability Case Processing System (DCPS), a set of software programs, is now "official" even though it has not yet been rolled out at every Disability Determination Service. DCPS has been controversial. I hope they've got the bugs out of the system.
7 comments:
Here's a howler from their President's newsletter.
"Reconsideration Reviews: NADE supports the reconsideration review level. The reconsideration decisions
are more time and cost efficient than ALJ decisions."
Said no ALJ ever.
Recon is a redundant extra step with, what, a 5% grant rate, and with Medical Consultant review in many states limited to analysis-free affirmation of the prior determination.
My experience is that the recon level, reintroduced in Michigan OHO Lansing area a year ago after a long absence, is nothing more than an added obstacle that increases the delay between the application and a hearing before an ALJ.
DCPS seems to be working fine. Some things work better with it and others with our old system, not that we have any choice as to which one any case will end up in. The problem is having both systems at once. For example if you were to call and ask about your case I would have to check under one and then if it was not there check under the other. If you wanted DDS to make quick recon decisions it could be done in one day by affirming the initial decision.. However most of us, our employer and the Feds have some interest in having current up to date information, being fair to the claimant and making correct decisions.
"Recon is a redundant extra step with, what, a 5% grant rate, and with Medical Consultant review in many states limited to analysis-free affirmation of the prior determination."
It's 10-13% typically or about 60-75k people annually. I'm guessing they would disagree with your assertion it's a redundant step. If you're in an OHO, you're using the same bias the courts do in reviewing ALJ decisions. "All they do is deny cases!" says the group that only ever sees the denials.
9:31 It's also the lowest award rate in the entire process. It's not efficient to the vast majority of users....I'm sure a portion of those approvals have adverse onset dates so still go on to request a hearing...and recon customers have no due process say in answering questions from the analyst or questioning the medical consultant. The biggest efficiency for SSA would be the number of people who give up after recon and don't request a hearing, but that's not the same thing as good customer service.
The Virginia DDS used to send us a bi-weekly status report with all of our VA clients status updates. Super helpful and prevented 100's of calls. With DCPS they are saying they can no longer provide this status report. This will add 100's of calls to DDS and SSA now. Really wish there was a way for us to get an automated status report on claims at DDS. The fact that DCPS doesn't have this option is frustrating. ERE/ARS needs to add that soon. I would guess that 20-30% of the time we do not get a copy of the denial even on cases we are listed as the rep. We will need to call DDS and SSA much more often now to check on the status of the case and make sure we are notified when a CE is setup or a decision is made to not miss the appeal deadline. Hoping SSA and DDS can find a solution to this problem soon. Fingers crossed all the other DDS offices don't stop sending out status reports as well.
DCPS makes it a lot easier for a DDS examiner to contact and write to an attorney.
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