From NEXTGOV/FCW:
The Social Security Administration is delaying its rollout of new systems to centralize claims processing and appointment scheduling and pivoting to a pilot approach, according to internal emails obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
SSA had intended to debut these new systems early this month. They were expected to be a major shift in how the agency operates, moving from processing claims locally to a national system.
The optics of such a change factored into SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano’s decision to delay the rollout of the new systems — “particularly where customers may expect access to their local office,” read an internal email sent Monday.
It also outlined the importance of the agency moving slowly to make sure the effects on customer experience are fully understood before the National Appointment Scheduling Calendar and National Workload Management system are implemented broadly. Bisignano had touted the plans as coming improvements to staff just last week in an internal email. …
The decision to pilot the changes will allow the agency to test if the expected efficiencies are realized and “ensure we maintain customer confidence” before a wider launch, the email announcing the change said. Details on the pilot are forthcoming, it said, after the agency has spent months preparing for the national rollout. …
16 comments:
Smart move. Now give us our telework back. If ALJs telework full time, so should we.
Kudos to them for pausing. Allowing any FO to view and work on cases isn't the worst idea if they can make it work...but that's a huge if. I think it relies on having more and better trained staff than they actually do, who can accurately put things into WorkTrack and understand complicated situations. I worry that this new system will lead to even more buck-passing and backlogs than I see now.
Sounds like Career SES are back in the saddle at SSA. Granted, it's good to understand the impact of changes like this. But Career SES are generally awful.
FAILING offices cant wait for this, meanwhile offices that bust their butt are dreading this.
Since being pulled from my normal CR duties and answering for the 800# I can confidently tell you there is alot crap work being done and alot if managers doing everything they can to run interference to look better than they are! Managers working off the clock to meet goals pulling lists.
When you ask “how many appts will I need to take a day?”
Just our “normal” you just pull down another appointment, You get 15mins to screen your appointments but I better not see you screening every appointment!
DO I get paid extra for doing more appointments?
What is expected of me?
I can tell you this my manager got so pissed off at me for asking these questions! I’m seasoned and really good at my job we have been promised sunshine and lollipops with rose petals falling from the sky.
I get the idea but if I need a freaking marriage certificate from a widow far away and that office has their armed guard stopping people “appointment only” (when they dont have any availability) I have within my power to deny the widow because she didn’t turn it in within 30 days. (I DO NOT want that world)
We have been promised adjudication days, easier to get days off, everything will be great!
To be fair I have asked management if I could work more OT like 12 hr days and i get a nasty look and told NO dont ever ask that.
NASC is such a big topic! We have not seen ANY good changes at ssa for a LONG LONG TIME!
The real reason for the delay…
Employees said they’re wary that these systems could introduce more complexity to their workloads — as well as more room for error. State laws introduce another layer of complexity to these cases. Some states, for example, have a higher income limit for SSA programs like Supplemental Security Income.
Many states offer a supplement to SSI benefits to help cover living costs for low-income seniors, as well as blind or disabled individuals. Those supplement amounts and eligibility vary state-by-state.
Some states let SSA manage these supplements, resulting in one combined check, while other states process their SSI supplements as a separate payment. Other states don’t offer these SSI supplements.
“We don’t have answers on how we are supposed to handle this,” the second SSA employee said.
They are more important than you.
Huh? ALJs don’t telework full-time, and haven’t in years
I suspect this has nothing to do with any concerns about backlogs or half baked workflows for complex situations. I’m confident it’s as they say- there were concerns about public access to the local FO with the midterms approaching. FOs were to be asked to reduce their in-office claims appt availability to 10% of what it usually is. In other words, we usually offer ~30 appts per day, with about half of customers choosing in-office. After release, we would offer only 3 - drastically reducing public access to face to face interviews. IMO, Frank was told to hold off by vulnerable gop reps. Also interesting, and totally coincidental timing I’m sure, Andy Sruibas has left as head of operations. Ousted or resigned?
I want to know if every field office will be able to send cases to every DDS. If I live in Virginia and an office in Texas takes my SSDI claim, EXR request, CDR appeal, etc. will it go to the Virginia or the Texas DDS? Similarly, what happens with trust reviews in SSI cases (are there still regional trust review teams?) and workers' comp issues (are those all done at PCs, or are folks in reverse offset states going to have to learn the rules for other states and vice versa?)? I'm not opposed to SSA changing things around if it leads to better service, but they need to have stuff like this worked out ahead of time. I don't care whether the person helping me is in Maine or Minnesota if they can actually help. But if I get someone who has "never heard of" Section 301 (like an SSI technical expert I recently spoke with, and no we don't have an AWIC where I live) am I supposed to teach it to her in the 20 minutes scheduled for our appointment? And if she doesn't do all the work properly, can I get back in touch with her or do I have to start with a new guy 2 time zones away next time I manage to get an appointment?
You shouldn't be getting nasty looks from anyone just asking a question. Certainly don't let those above you treat you any differently than before this administration's shake-up of SSA. Just because people might be crabby, give them no reason to be giving anything other than a neutral look. Even a small chuckle would be better than a nasty look!
If it helps things along, I wouldn't care where my case went, as long as it goes to someone who knows how to work it, and someone that will work it with compassion (at least a little bit) rather than just trying to push it fast to get to the next case, and in return make mistakes that could be much harder to fix for the previous claimant.
It seems like it won't help many claimants. Example EDCS: several hospitals in the area my office serves are not listed in EDCS by their common name. They are listed by abbreviations that aren't easy to figure out on one's own. Johnson Regional Medical center may be under CO/H/JRM. The CO is because it's a county facility, the H indicates a hospital. I've taken claims in this area for 30 years so I know the names of most of the doctors and their specialties. We only have one ENT doctor in town. If the claimants says he went to an ENT in town but forgot the name I can ask him if he saw the one I know is practicing. There is so much local information that one learns over the years that will not be used if this plan goes forth.
How much has this cost the agency? LOL
We have been sold a bunch of lies from the beginning.
“Gone are the days of unscheduled leads” - Lie - We will be expected to address unserviced appointments at the end of the day.
“Gone are the days of worrying about covering appointments when someone calls out” - Lie - We will have to backfill to meet our daily expected employee count.
“Gone are the days of in-office appointments”(Because we were told we were going to be forcing the public to adjust their expectations) - Lie - we will still have in office appointment calendar.
“Employees will be held to the same expectations for appointments” - Lie - just keep churning out claims all day one after another
“Employees will be held to the same expectations for appointments” - Lie - employees will be expected to take any type of claim they have received training for. Even if they only take RSHI we have to set the up to also take Disability.
And despite all these lies we still welcome this initiative and are pained by the delay. Because we are drowning in hundreds of unscheduled leads. Not because we are failing like 10:06 AM states. But because the AGENCY and this administration has failed us and the public. People have been pushed out the door and the ones that are left are broken and beat. Slaving to 800#, reception, and area phones.
When 83% of your staff are needed daily for just those things but yet still need to somehow do initial claims, iClaims, paper claims, RZs, CDRs, and all the other paper items you literally pray for a no-show so you can have just an ounce of adjudication time. And then the agency tells us to cook the numbers by not scanning items to work track or just clearing (with or without action) just so the pending is 0 > 30.
So yes, there are lots of offices failing. Mistakes are being made and irreparable harm is being done. But not because of lazy and incompetent employees. But because we are drowning under the 200%+ productivity. Losing over half our staff but still being expected to work harder and harder. And we do so because we believe in public service.
So maybe NASC was a glimmer of hope that the people we are killing ourselves each day to serve may actually receive the service they deserve. Because I don’t know how many more people who die waiting my sanity can take. Enough is enough.
My point exactly!
We are a good office and have lost too many and expected to lose more this year! We have been told “there are offices who have appointment availability” our RHSI is booked up by noon every day.
We are all going to absorb! LOL
Management has skewed the numbers, management is answering phones and doing other stuff to make us look good VS saying we need help we cant meed the goals without more hires.
You appear to be a worker with integrity (ssa needs more of those) unfortunately we have been put in a position of catastrophic failure and yet blamed for it!
No one in their right mind would put 9 players on the football filed(need 11) but that is where ssa is right now.
Am a manager who actively does production work. I don’t do it to make the numbers look good. I do it because I care about my employees and the public. My employees are working their tails off and not able to gain traction, because the COSS thinks the other thing that is important is phones. There is no adjudication time otherwise.
I suspect other managers are doing for the same reasons. I hope you could look at it through that lens rather than the jaded view that it is only to try to arbitrarily look good.
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