Almost a year ago, Social Security published proposed regulations on continuing disability reviews. They propose to add a new category fro reviews, Medical Improvement Likely (MIL), to be reviewed every two years. MIL was aimed at a group of impairments which they said fitted between the categories of Medical Improvement Expected (MIE) and Medical Improvement Possible (MIP). They said they would include anxiety related disorders in this category. They proposed to increase the frequency of reviews for the category of Medical Improvement Not Expected (MINE) from seven years to six years. Overall, they said they expected to increase Continuing Disability Review (CDRs) by more than 1.1 million a year. This proposal encountered considerable opposition.
Social Security has now asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to give approval to these as final regulations. OMB won't have long to act on the proposed final regulations. Traditionally, new Administrations put a freeze on any regulations still pending at OMB as well as new regulations that have been published but which have not yet gone into effect. Since agencies have to give at least 30 days notice, by my calculation Social Security needs to get these regulations in the Federal Register by December 21 to have them become effective before Joe Biden takes office. Even if they meet this timeline, the new Administration can refuse to implement them and the new Congress can review them under the Congressional Review Act. There are no filibusters of Congressional Review Act reviews.
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