The Costs of Delay

The New York Times has an article (registration required) that demonstrates the human costs of delaying filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits -- and the human costs of delay in adjudicating disability claims at SSA. This formerly middle class family was thrust into dire poverty primarily by disability and their delay in seeking disability benefits from SSA.

The indignities of poverty are endless. In this case, the family had a Thanksgiving meal only because of the generosity of Catholic charities and the wife has been forced to sell her wedding ring. Sadly, this sort of story is repeated hundreds of thousands times a year and gets almost no publicity.

One Week To Go on Age Proposal

There is only one week left to comment on Social Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the age classifications in the grid regulations. The proposal would add two years onto each of the age categories, making age 57 the new 55 and 52 the new 50. The change is predicted to cut Social Security disability benefits by almost $6 billion over ten years. Anyone wanting to comment on the NPRM may do so online at an SSA website.

Organized Comments on Age NPRM

Despite being predicted to cut Social Security disability benefits by almost $6 billion over 10 years, Social Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the age classifications in the grid regulations has drawn surprisingly few comments. This may be changing as the January 4, 2006 final date for making comments approaches. A series of identical comments started appearing on SSA's website on December 22. There are now several dozen of them, probably arranged by the ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens).

Anyone wanting to comment on the NPRM may do so online at an SSA website.

Top Management Challenges For SSA

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released to the public its report to the Commissioner of Social Security on what OIG views to be the top management challenges to the agency.

Americans Support Social Security

"When asked in a new Harris Poll how strongly they support 14 different government services, five services receive strong, or a fair amount of support, from about three-fourths of all adults or more. The five most popular services are The National Parks Service (85% support), Crime-fighting and prevention services (77%) Medicare (76%), Social Security (76%), and Unemployment benefits (74%)." PRNewswire

Good News on Christmas Day

Eric Schnaufer, a prominent Social Security attorney who had been hospitalized due to serious injuries, is scheduled for release from the hospital today.

Death Master File On DVD

Social Security's death master file is now available on DVD. This is SSA's official record of deaths reported to the agency. It is useful for fraud prevention and for genealogical research.

Medicare Problems After Release From Prison

A new addition to SSA's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) alerts SSA employees to a problem with the data used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) concerning prisoners. Because of computer problems, Medicare claims are being denied on the grounds that a person is incarcerated even after they have been released and SSA has been notified of the release. Apparently, the computers at SSA and CMS are not communicating with each other on prisoner releases.

Prominent Social Security Attorney Hospitalized

Eric Schnaufer, a prominent Social Security attorney, has suffered a serious injury. He is hospitalized at the Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois. He was in intensive care, but has now been released to a regular room.

A Christmas Wish List

What I am wishing for in this Christmas season are answers to a few questions:

1. How long is it taking to get a Social Security hearing these days? Can anyone at SSA send me a list showing how long it is taking to get an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearing in each of the hearing offices? I think there are quite a few people who would be interested in this.
   
2. What happened to the results of the pilot projects that SSA did some years ago on eliminating the Appeals Council? It is no secret that such studies were done, yet SSA denies having any data produced by these projects. That is odd and surprising. It begs an explanation, yet SSA has not provided an explanation. There is great interest in what will happen when the Appeals Council is abolished, which is likely to start happening in 2006.
3. There have been some signs that SSA may be ready to enforce the requirement that approval be obtained before charging a fee for representing Social Security claimants even if the fee is paid for by the Long Term Disability (LTD) insurance company paying benefits to the claimant. Is SSA ready to bring charges? Are those representing LTD carriers changing the way they do business?

If you can help with my Christmas list, please e-mail me at charles@charleshallfirm.com.