A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees
Subject: SSA Brings Continuing Disability Review Workloads In-House
Today, we announced the agency will bring in-house the processing of medical continuing disability reviews (CDRs) from State Disability Determination Services (DDS) to our federal processing site called Disability Case Review (DCR). CDRs are conducted as part of SSA’s ongoing program integrity workload to determine whether a person receiving disability benefits should continue receiving them.
Centralizing medical CDRs is another important step to reduce improper payments and improve customer service. This shift allows the DDSs to focus on efficiently processing disability claim decisions and benefits for eligible individuals. Reduced wait times for state level disability decisions means eligible individuals can begin receiving their critical benefits more quickly.
DDS initial claim backlogs spiked to over 1.2 million in June of 2024. They have done great work driving down the backlog to 831,000 claimants waiting for a decision as of February 2026. This next step will maximize the DDS’s state level resources to further reduce processing time and continue to drive down the pending claims.
DCR, with its experience processing initial disability claims, reconsideration cases, and medical CDRs, will now handle medical CDRs for the entire country—allowing DDS sites to focus on reducing wait times on initial claims and reconsideration cases for citizens in their state. Non-medical CDRs, which do not require the same expertise as medical CDRs to process, will continue to be handled by the agency’s field offices and processing centers.
31 comments:
Is this a joke? DCR doesn't exist.
Is DCR the former HQ folks who accepted transfers to "front-line" "mission-critical" work and got very little training before starting to decide on reconsiderations? I can't imagine most of them will stick around once they stop getting paid at the GS 12-15 most of them are continuing to earn. Are they getting any training on the MIRS (and situations like meeting 12.05 where less development is needed)? Do they have support staff to help them gather evidence? Will they be able to schedule people for CEs? Will they also do DHO hearings when people get denied? I am not completely opposed to this if it actually works--it could help bring down DDS processing times for initial decisions--but I fear it won't be well-executed and we'll wind up with a bunch of CDR cessations (including for "failure to cooperate") that either become new claims or ALJ hearings.
I see the dark clouds of a disastrous storm. If they take the time to do it right, it may just sprinkle a bit of rain. If not, it could be a full on brutal storm against the disabled.
What could possibly go wrong?
No, DCR is all the disability examiners combined. The old and new. The new ones got indefinite pay retention though so their salary won’t change. Some classes are not out of recon training yet and it’s been a year because they got a month of in class vs the standard 6 months. No clue how they plan to execute CDR training for them.
Its fun to hear the staff read their emails and comment out loud (like this one) “are you freaking serious?”
In all seriousness we have always said “dds makes the medical decisions”
I guess we will see…
This is a boondoggle of the highest order. Only the DDSs have sufficient numbers of physicians and psychologists to do the legally required end line reviews for these cases. It is an impossible task for the Feds to staff up to get the job done. Help Mr. Wizard!
I predict this is an attempt to implement AI into CDR decision making that will skew heavily towards cessations. Just my gut feeling given the current administration's thoughts on disability beneficiaries and their imagined prevalent fraud. Hopefully thats not the case. If so, it'll likely lead to a ton of future litigation and massive ad hoc workloads during the next administration change.
My question is what does this mean for the future of DDSs? Their budget is heavily weighted by CDRs. If they dont have CDRs to process, how much money gets cut from them? They're already underfunded and subsequently understaffed. What's the ultimate objective here as it relates to the current DDS model?
Having to process CDRs aren't whats slowing up initial and recon decisions. Understaffing and the inevitable delays that go with information gathering and the need for claimant cooperation are the main culprits that aren't going to change as a result of this move.
Typical GOP governance: cut funding, do a crap job, and let the other party clean up the mess. then bitch and moan about how much the other party had to spend fixing the mess to get reelected. rinse, repeat, and marvel at how easy conning conservative Americans continues to be.
Federal disability processing units have been in existence for decades! There is more to SSA than just field offices
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Fed side has their own doctors
Dds doesn’t even have that. They are working with bare bones themselves, but they are much better positioned than bringing it in house is going to be
so instead of hiring enough people at DDS pay scales, SSA is going to do CDRs with much higher-paid staff that transferred from senior jobs at HQ? I don't begrudge individuals for taking the best career paths available to them, but I don't see how this is efficient for the agency. And if DCR is located in Baltimore, this is going to be another big hit to the Maryland DDS, which has historically had retention problems and big backlogs because anyone decent there gets poached by SSA.
This brings me to wonder.... I'm a claimant. If during one of my CDR's, and they want me to see one of their doctors, where I live, most likely that would be my own doctor. We're not exactly overflowing with mental health doctors here. They'd have to fly me out if they wanted me to see one I haven't already seen and knows me.
Cute thought, but you seem to have forgotten about things like telephones and webcams.
Are you suggesting that because the federal government is doing your CDR that you would need to visit Washington DC or some other state just because the disability examiner isn’t in your state? Honestly, your comment and some other comments are just default reaction to criticize something.
The state DDSs are proxies for SSA to perform claim reviews and adjudicate claims. They are funded by SSA. SSA is going to hire more disability examiners and likely many will be examiners working in a state DDS. So I would anticipate they will be experienced in the workload and need little to no training like someone off the street. Whether this decision makes fiscal sense will be something to watch, since a federal disability examiner will make much more than doing the same work for the state.
How is it going to work for someone who gets a dib cess and wants to appear in person for a hearing before it’s finalized?
I'm not sure they've even considered how the disability hearing level will function yet.
Think they'll take over hearings as well
Hope DDS jobs will be safe
Since when has this administration ever taken the time to do anything right?
Yeah. All they need to cease your benefits is to examine you via webcam. I wonder if the AI bot will also be allowed to undress you for examination.
It won't be an issue because they will just implement a rule allowing the agency to require mandatory video hearings.
@ 12:45 - I don't do tele-health. @3:12 - I live on an island and the nearest doctors other than a very few are 800 miles north. SOME states run different than others due to size and rurality. Honestly, your comment, you didn't think to deeply into, did you?
Wonders what Monday will be like at dds
@7:19 - That is why I don't do tele-health. I would also never see a judge via webcam or over the phone. Some things need to be in person. Funny enough though, to see a judge is a shorter flight than seeing a doctor of their choosing.
@7:21 a rule with that significant of a change will not be able to happen quickly. Seems like this change for CDRs is happening now. Anyone have policy links for how that will work now?
@12:45: You don’t “do” telehealth, yet except for a few doctors you would [need to] travel 800 miles? Not sure how popular or not this will be but: as a taxpayer, I don’t want to pay for you to travel (and related travel expenses) for a trip like that. I don’t care if Feds or state are conducting your review. Telehealth should be mandated in cases where a relevant doctor is not local enough. And anyone who doesn’t want to “do” telehealth can have their benefits stopped. It’s not about where you live. It’s not about not caring about your conditions. You don’t say whether physical or mentally you could make such a long journey. I’m sure there are those who could not. People can and should live where they want. And someone who is eligible for benefits should get them. But this is 2026. And IF telehealth is a viable method to determine if your abilities have changed or not, then I’m fine with mandating telehealth in that case(s). “I don’t do telehealth.” Lol
@8:06 Hard to make sure metal implants are in place and things haven't gotten worse in a degenerated spine without an MRI. Our Medicaid system covers flights/hotels/cabs. Major shortage of doctors. SSA obviously isn't going to do that, so tele-health would be a waste of time on me if they can't physically touch me, watch my gait, or have the required tests. X-ray, yup, that's available here. MRI is not. X-rays don't show soft tissue, so that would be a waste of time. If I had no other choice, I'd do tele-health, but they know that will not work in my case. I don't do tele-health. It's impossible and a waste of time IN MY CASE.
I’m not sure how the states are going to feel if you take this responsibility away from us. are they gonna cut money to the states as well? it sure seems inconsistent with Sec. 221. [42 U.S.C. 421] Which defines the scope of DDS responsibilities. I agree this could be an opportunity to take this away from the states and make it easier to deny people upon CDR.
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/862040700
Here is the job announcement. Three cities in California, where they are hiring are all areas where they can’t keep analysts in the DDS office. the Oakland DDS office has 16 analysts.
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