From some television station in Atlanta that likes to hide its call letters:
... For the Dickens, the unthinkable occurred in January when James had a stroke, his wife Schantalyn told 11Alive. The couple had only recently married in November 2023.
"You plan on getting married, and after getting married, you plan on a happily ever after," Schantalyn shared. "It was so unexpected. We didn't know that the morning of January 5 at 3 in the morning, James would have a massive stroke."
Since his stroke, James has been recovering in a nursing facility. Meanwhile, Schantalyn continues to check in with eligibility officials to see whether her husband's disability claimed has been reviewed and approved. ...
[T]he time it takes to process cases varies widely. The national average for making an initial disability determination is 187 days, while in Georgia, the determination takes an average of 287 days. South Carolina tops the list for wait times, with 325 days for initial determination. SSA attributes much of the delays to staffing challenges. ...
9 comments:
The couple should contact their Congressional leaders and inform them of their situation. Congress is responsible for the funding of the program. The public should be flooding these Congressional offices with complaints of how inadequate the current system works.
And ask for increased funding.
Does that actually accomplish anything? I talked to a prominent Senator, who told me to contact his staff. They were very helpful, but, I don't think it helped in the tiniest amount. SSA just seems so immune from any outside pressure, unless there's a lot of media attention. Still took 6 years to get.
A letter from a Senator or Congressperson has always been helpful in focusing office attention. I expect that will become even more so with the arrival of the new Commissioner and his attention to efficiency. So write to Congress, and CC the Commissioner.
We are required to wait three months after a stroke to get medical records to then and nursing homes often do not send records describing the persons condition. We get that they took their temperature or that they had a BM bit no actual neurological findings.
In field offices, the management staff prioritizes Congressional inquiries. They personally email/contact the representative assigned to the case for status and follow up regularly for status until it's resolved. It definitely makes a difference getting over hurdles faster in my experience.
The management people are usually the only ones that have conniption fits over Congressional inquiries. The rank and file employees aren't affected in any way by them beyond any pressure that management may put on them to resolve the case.
Ms. Dickens should also contact their State representatives for assistance. The employees making the decisions are Georgia State employees working for an agency of the State of Georgia, so pressure from that side can sometimes be more advantageous at the DDS level than federal Congressional inquiries.
I suspect, due to the disability being a stroke, there was probably some sort of mandated medical hold period before development was begun. This isn't unusual for strokes/CVAs/aneurysms, cardiac events, or even possibly treatable types of cancer. Combine this with Georgia's 287 day processing time, and you get where the Dixons are today.
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
I suspect, due to the disability being a stroke, there was probably some sort of mandated medical hold period before development was begun. This isn't unusual for strokes/CVAs/aneurysms, cardiac events, or even possibly treatable types of cancer. Combine this with Georgia's 287 day processing time, and you get where the Dixons are today.
2:55 PM, July 03, 2024"
I've always heard they hold it for nine months to see if there will be improvement. 🤷♂️
Some Congressional constituent services are better than others. Blue states are usually much better. Red states like to sharpen their ax on particular issues but overall constituent service is poor, especially in non-elrction years.
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