Increase ALJ productivity to the levels OHO maintained for its entire history up to the pandemic - about 2.1 per ALJ per day. That is the equivalent of hiring 200 ALJs. OHO has dithered for the last 3-4 years to the point that such an increase will only be a short term solution in light of ongoing natural ALJ attrition and increasing dds determinations, but right now the problem is one of oho’s making. You go 5 years without even mentioning productivity - relaxing while receipts were down - and this is what u get. And the increase in OT is only resuming the level of OT from last year.
Why not increase it to 5.7 a day and say you got imagen have at it. 🤪. A lot of the best staff at OHO saw the writing on the wall and left… good luck trying squeeze what’s left to hit any metrics.
Because OHO never did 5.7 a day. Just go back to what OHO used to do every year as a matter of course.
And is there actually a staffing shortage at OHO? Last I checked, in 2024, the writers were doing the equivalent of call center work for about 20% of their time because there weren’t enough decisions to draft to keep them fully occupied.
For whatever reason, OHO is largely given a pass compared to Operations. OHO looks good because receipts went down dramatically for years, and the pending/backlog/processing times accordingly dropped dramatically as well, even tho dispositions fell off a cliff. Unlike some of the other narratives bandied about, that one is borne out by valid stats. Executive mismanagement.
OHO doing 20% of their time doing call center work in 2024? OHO was in an all hands on deck writing position. They haven’t done CEO calls in years. I think you have your timeframes off. The Agency has just made decision more difficult to write in terms of all the discussion they now want regarding medical opinion evidence. If they want to increase productivity they should simplify the decision writing process.
CEO calls were absolutely being done during parts of FY 2024. More importantly, why would they ever pay attorneys six figures to do script-driven work a summer intern could perform? And they did it for years. The answer is because OHO has been mismanaged.
The opinion evidence requirements for writers changed in 2017… not sure why you think they “just changed.” It’s always been required to write proper opinion evidence evaluations , writers just weren’t doing it - the Agency is just of the AC and USDC remands for bad opinion evidence evaluations and re-did training for it. Nothing changed.
The problem with just telling ALJs to do what they used to is that the case files are now about 4-5 times larger than they were just a few years ago thanks to a combination of rep conduct, access to care, and cuts to support staff’s responsibilities (to cover for cuts to the staff). Go enjoy your retirement and shut the hell up about things you know nothing about.
Nothing changed but the VOD they put out last year requiring two paragraphs of additional analysis per opinion in the file that literally no one did before so now you are spending an additional two hours per decision….shocker less get written…
Hah - we still use Windows 10 (which was released in 2015) - it’s cute you think AI can be used to any significant degree in 5 years… I’m sure they’ll try- will be interesting to watch
18 comments:
Welcome to the SSA Titanic! Thanks to DOGE and the clown show in Washington.
Really support's yesterday's glowing COSS status update. NOT!!!!!!!
Probably exhausted having to work OT and commute into office 5 days a week.
Good thing the administration canceled that ALJ announcement they posted 😂
Increase ALJ productivity to the levels OHO maintained for its entire history up to the pandemic - about 2.1 per ALJ per day. That is the equivalent of hiring 200 ALJs. OHO has dithered for the last 3-4 years to the point that such an increase will only be a short term solution in light of ongoing natural ALJ attrition and increasing dds determinations, but right now the problem is one of oho’s making. You go 5 years without even mentioning productivity - relaxing while receipts were down - and this is what u get. And the increase in OT is only resuming the level of OT from last year.
Why not increase it to 5.7 a day and say you got imagen have at it. 🤪. A lot of the best staff at OHO saw the writing on the wall and left… good luck trying squeeze what’s left to hit any metrics.
AI will eventually ramp up productivity. In 5 years, the process will be much different
Because OHO never did 5.7 a day. Just go back to what OHO used to do every year as a matter of course.
And is there actually a staffing shortage at OHO? Last I checked, in 2024, the writers were doing the equivalent of call center work for about 20% of their time because there weren’t enough decisions to draft to keep them fully occupied.
For whatever reason, OHO is largely given a pass compared to Operations. OHO looks good because receipts went down dramatically for years, and the pending/backlog/processing times accordingly dropped dramatically as well, even tho dispositions fell off a cliff. Unlike some of the other narratives bandied about, that one is borne out by valid stats. Executive mismanagement.
OHO doing 20% of their time doing call center work in 2024? OHO was in an all hands on deck writing position. They haven’t done CEO calls in years. I think you have your timeframes off. The Agency has just made decision more difficult to write in terms of all the discussion they now want regarding medical opinion evidence. If they want to increase productivity they should simplify the decision writing process.
CEO calls were absolutely being done during parts of FY 2024. More importantly, why would they ever pay attorneys six figures to do script-driven work a summer intern could perform? And they did it for years. The answer is because OHO has been mismanaged.
Agreed. As will most things in society.
The opinion evidence requirements for writers changed in 2017… not sure why you think they “just changed.” It’s always been required to write proper opinion evidence evaluations , writers just weren’t doing it - the Agency is just of the AC and USDC remands for bad opinion evidence evaluations and re-did training for it. Nothing changed.
The problem with just telling ALJs to do what they used to is that the case files are now about 4-5 times larger than they were just a few years ago thanks to a combination of rep conduct, access to care, and cuts to support staff’s responsibilities (to cover for cuts to the staff). Go enjoy your retirement and shut the hell up about things you know nothing about.
Nothing changed but the VOD they put out last year requiring two paragraphs of additional analysis per opinion in the file that literally no one did before so now you are spending an additional two hours per decision….shocker less get written…
Yeah I agree since that VOD came out everyone in my office has been complaining about the amount of time it takes to discuss the opinion evidence.
Hah - we still use Windows 10 (which was released in 2015) - it’s cute you think AI can be used to any significant degree in 5 years… I’m sure they’ll try- will be interesting to watch
Files were massive in 2019 too. The ALJ per day oroductivity stats for OHO speak for themselves.
What’s the deal with the email about bonuses? I can’t wait for my pathetic “bonus” as a thank you for the hell of the last 5 months.
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