I'm not sure that I heard of the CASES (Creating Advanced Streamlined Electronic Services for Constituents) Act until I saw a recent report by the Congressional Research Service. CASES requires federal agencies to "accept electronic identity proofing and authentication processes for individuals to consent to gaining personal access to, or the disclosure of, an individual’s records in possession of a federal agency to another party" and to "create templates for electronic consent and access forms and require posting of the templates on agency websites" and to "accept the electronic consent and access forms."
Apparently, a major impetus for this legislation is the problems that Congressional offices themselves have in providing constitutent services. They want to be able to access agency records directly. However, the language isn't limited to Congressional offices. Social Security claimants should be able to access their own records as well as their attorneys.
Social Security seems to be wildly out of compliance with CASES and making little, if any, progress to compliance. Yes, claimants can establish electronic access to something that Social Security calls their file but that access is extremely limited. For instance, claimants can find out that an Administrative Law Judge has made a decision in their case but they cannot access the decision. They can find out that their disability claim is pending at the initial level but they cannot see what is going on other than a totally meaningless percentage that purports to show how far along their case is. Telling a claimant that their case is 55% of the way to a decision is giving them meaningless and misleading information. It doesn’t work like that. Claimants can't access the medical records in their case. Yes, attorneys can get better access to their clients' files but the attorney electronic consent and access form has so many problems that it's seldom used. If the e-1696 is submitted, the agency still contacts the claimant by telephone to make sure they really did appoint an attorney and they must still laboriously enter the information in Social Security's data systems, processes that can literally take months. Even after that, attorneys still don't get much access to their clients' files other than at the hearing and Appeals Council levels. We certainly cannot access information on what is going on at the black holes called payment centers.
3 comments:
And even when it all goes right below the hearing level in terms of access, we still can't access the notices that were sent to find out if the case at initial or reconsideration is actually still pending. We can't see the earnings record to see whether there is really an insured status issue or are there earnings after onset issues let alone being able to advise our clients as to how much the benefits would be. In specific terms, why only the E and F sections of the electronic file and not the A and B sections that contain those notices and the D section which should but doesn't contain the Earnings Information, either at the State Agency or at the Hearing Level until immediately before the hearing.
And, the Payment Center, that black hole, should have its information available even just to show they really do have the case and are working on it so we can advise our clients. I know being able to contact them directly is only wishful thinking on my part
Once upon a time, when the Listings were first established, the SSA considered them private information that they would not disclose because if people knew what they had to prove to establish disability, the SSA was afraid they would actually use that information to win their case. I don't think the mindset within the SSA has changed in the past 75 years.
SSA's summary of the law states in bold: "The law does not provide funding to implement these requirements."
https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_082219.html
Pretty sure ODD is the roadblock on access to all sections of the EF below the hearing level. Puts the burden on the FO staff who are already overwhelmed. Quote from SSA HQ exec: “SSA is made up of silos of power.” Not all docs in Section E show up in ERE for reps at Initial and Recon level. SSA-5002s often not in the file. Reps are mandated to conduct business electronically, but this archaic stance by ODD creates manual processes and wastes manpower that SSA does not have.
Below hearing, adjudicators are discouraged from using earnings queries and rarely if ever follow the requirements to place them in EF when they do.
https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0422515020
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