New Rules on Attorney and Rep Disqualification

Social Security has published new final rules which become effective on February 17, 2006 concerning disqualification of attorneys and others from representing Social Security claimants. The rules are non-controversial and drew few public comments.

Medicare Part D Problems at SSA

The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA) has sent out an e-mail to its members about its contacts with top management at SSA asking for help in dealing with a deluge of claimants seeking information about the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D of Medicare) and help in signing up for it. Here is how the NCSSMA President describes the situation:

The core of our call today was discussing the impact of the huge increase in telephone calls to the 800# and the huge increase in visitors to SSA since the beginning of the year. The 800# is seeing a 100% increase in calls on some days for comparable periods the same time last year. Many FO’s [Field Offices] are seeing walk-in traffic far beyond what they have seen in years.

Unfortunately, the rest of the e-mail suggests that there is no relief on the way for the beleagured SSA employees, or the public.

Ticket to Work Meeting

The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel has scheduled a meeting for San Juan, P.R. for February 1-3, 2006. The Caribbean in February, hmmm. I guess the members do not worry about appearances. Even though the Panel is holding the meeting in Puerto Rico where there would only be a limited number of English speaking claimants available to speak, the Panel wants testimony from beneficiaries on:

(1) Ending the requirement that an individual’s medical benefits must be tied to their eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) cash benefits;
(2) gradually reducing beneficiaries’ monthly SSDI checks once they earn a certain amount for a certain period of time instead of ending them all at once; Social Security work rules would affect
(3) allowing beneficiaries to earn more and still remain eligible for a monthly Social Security check;
(4) providing beneficiaries accurate, understandable information about how Socia'l Security work rules would affect them;
(5) extending beneficiaries’ eligibility for other federally funded support services, such as financial help with housing and food for a transition period of up to 3 years after reaching full-time employment; and
(6) any other issues not listed above that would affect beneficiaries’ ability to return to work.

Privatization Not Dead?

In an interview with the Jacksonville, TN Sun, Allan Hubbard, President Bush's assistant for economic policy and head of the National Economic Council, insists that the president is not giving up on Social Security "reform." Hubbard blames Democrats and the AARP for the lack of progress on the President's plan.

Unemployment Insurance Offset

Boston.com Business reports that Massaschusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Colorado, Utah, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, and South Dakota all reduce state unemployment insurance benefits if a claimant is receiving Social Security benefits. Another state, Ohio, denies unemployment benefits altogether to those on Social Security benefits. The American Association of Retired People (AARP) has started lobbying these states to change their laws.

Serious Social Security Fraud

The vast majority of the Social Security fraud prosecutions are minor league affairs, with little threat of real jail time, but there are exceptions. The Herald of Rock Hill, SC reports that a jail guard in Chester County, SC has drawn a twenty month sentence for bribing an employee of a Georgia SSA office to supply blank Social Security cards which were then sold to undocumented aliens for $1,000 each. Apparently, the charges against the SSA employee have not yet been resolved.

Institute of Medicine Study Interim Report

Social Security has given the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences a contract to study SSA's listings of impairments and access to medical expertise. The final report is not due until later this year, but, at SSA's request, the Committee conducting the study has issued an interim report. The interim report is like most such consultant reports -- full of vague, meaningless exhortations to do better. It is also like most such reports in being somewhat self-serving. It is a report prepared by physicians which makes the surprising recommendation that more money be paid to physicians working for SSA and state agencies and to physicians preforming consultative examinations. This is undoubtedly well justified, but hardly a surprise. One would still like some new idea from this panel and there is certainly none in this interim report, nor is there any recommendation that has much real hope of meaningful implementation of what has been recommended.

Arthur Hess Dies

Arthur Hess, former Deputy Commissioner of Social Security, died on November 15, 2005 at his home in Charlottesville, VA. His passing has attracted almost no attention, which is a shame. Hess was 89. He came to work for SSA in 1939 and stayed with the agency until his retirement in 1974. He was a major part of the founding generation of Social Security employees who created most of what remains good about SSA. See this article prepared by the National Academy of Social Insurance on Hess's life. Hess was the first Medicare director, when Medicare was still part of SSA. The Health Care Financing Administration, which took over Medicare, and which is now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had an Oral History program which interviewed Hess in 1996. The transcript of that interview is good reading for anyone interested in the history of the Social Security Administration, and particularly for anyone interested in the history of disability benefits at SSA, since Hess may have been more responsible than anyone for setting up the disability program at SSA.

Curiously enough, even in 1996 Hess was critical of Social Security staffing, saying "the organization has now been ratcheted down to the point where it hasn't got even enough people to do the job it has to do. There are no people that you can pull from any place in Social Security to take on a new function without hurting existing functions." This may be a lesson that SSA is learning all over again with the introduction of Medicare Part D.

Clown Caught in Social Security Fraud in Montana

Roland Clown of Busby, MO pleaded guilty to defrauding Social Security of $50,000 in disability benefits, according to the Billings Gazette, and was sentenced to six months of home confinement and probation.

New Cardiovascular Listings

Today's Federal Register includes new final regulations changing SSA's cardiovascular listings. The new listings go into effect on April 13, 2006. At first look, the new regulations do not seem controversial. The new listings do carry forward with the recent trend towards longer and longer preambles to each listing section. If this process continues, the entire listings may eventually be over a hundred pages in length.