… 94-year-old Helen Cvik was declared legally dead in December 2025 by Social Security. The problem is, Miss Helen is still alive.
It's the fourth time since 2017 that Miss Helen has been declared dead by the SSA, including twice in 2025 alone. The first and second incidents in 2017 and 2020 were resolved quickly, with no explanation given for the error. …
The most recent accidental declaration has not been resolved, leaving Miss Helen and her family to pick up a $5,000 bill to cover her insurance, prescriptions, and her assisted living facility care. …
Every input can be checked by management. I suspect with the bad publicity that an investigation will be launched to see who was responsible. SSA employees are in a rush to clear cases but peoples lives are changed with each incorrect input.
ReplyDeleteI bet whoever is responsible does a high volume, and won’t receive more than a quick verbal response as a result. The agency couldn’t care less that you’re doing piss poor work and wrecking lives in the process as long as you’re doing so with speed.
DeleteTwice in 2025 leads me to wonder if there's an external source (state, funeral home system, CMS, etc.) with this poor person's SSN wrongly associated with a dead person whose record keeps getting sent to SSA. It could just be one digit off.
DeleteI am wondering if supervisors and TE’s are increasing the case and interview audits. This agency is in need of additional training sessions with so much knowledge leaving the agency.
DeleteThe story of the current SSA agency….
DeleteIt could just be one digit off.
Management has no MI for death inputs. We have no way of knowing who made the input.
DeleteNo MI? You have the SSN, you have the systems updated by the false death input, so you trace the source of the update - was it an online action by an SSA technician or record coming in from a state or other agency? From there, contact the initiating person or organization and ensure their records have been corrected to prevent this from reoccurring.
DeleteIt may be that the state vital records agency is reporting it repeatedly. I think SSA needs a way to lock or flag cases that they've previously resurrected, so they require a higher level of certification before the person can be declared dead in the future. Kind of like what they do when someone's been the victim of identity theft--there are protections they can put on the record so the bank account isn't easily changed again.
ReplyDeleteAs stated above SSA isnt the only way to put a death input on someone. Some funeral homes are notorious for NOT being accurate. I have seen 2x dod (not done by ssa but medicare) but not 4x. Outside sources like, VA, nursing homes. MY suspicion is outside sources, but ya blame SSA for everything we are used to it lol.
ReplyDeleteIt's not SSA's fault that you get incorrect information. It is SSA's fault that there's no way to flag a person who's repeatedly needed resurrection so their death reports get a little more scrutiny. It's mostly Congress' fault that the agency is so understaffed, but some of the training and supervision issues within SSA's purview mean that when people do manage to make appointments, they get bad information or inaccurate inputs on their cases.
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