Astrue At NOSSCR Conference

Michael Astrue spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) in St. Louis. Here are some points which I gleaned from his remarks, with my comments in brackets:

• Former Commissioner Barnhart's Disability Service Improvement (DSI) plan was budgeted for 35% of his agency's budget when Astrue took office. [I found that to be a stunning figure. I can understand why Astrue may have thought when he first took office that merely cancelling DSI would free up a lot of dollars to deal with his agency's backlogs. The fact that it did not is very strong proof of just how unrealistic DSI was.]
  
• He described the Social Security Administration (SSA) as "struggling." He is "frustrated" with the length of time it takes to get out disability decision.
  
• Two years ago SSA had 66,000 employees. By the end of this year [calendar year (CY) or fiscal year (FY)?] SSA will have fewer than 60,000 employees.
• In this FY, Social Security will generally be unable to replace employees who leave. Disability Determination Service (DDS) offices will be allowed to replace one employee for every two who leave, because of their higher employee turnover rate.
  
• Astrue expects 150 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to come "online" by April 2008. It was clear that he was talking only about 150 new ALJs, not a net increase in the number of ALJs. [150 new ALJs may not be enough to even cover the normal attrition in ALJs between now and the end of the FY.]
• He hopes that SSA will have a new interactive website by "next year" through which attorneys will be able to view their clients' files at SSA and that SSA will have an I-Appeals system which will allow for the online filing of appeals -- "next year." [Again, is the "next year", the next CY or the next FY?]
• Astrue is looking at shutting down many temporary offsite hearing locations.
• SSA is working on new regulations on the recognition of law firms and other similar entities as claimants' representatives. He hopes to get this to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where it would have to be approved, by early 2008. [This would not sound like anything important to an SSA employee or even to many who represent Social Security claimants, but it is a potentially major change which dramatically eases the path towards larger entities, either law firms or non-attorney entities, to represent Social Security claimants.]
• Astrue wants it to be possible for attorneys to be able to attend Social Security hearings electronically from their offices. He described this as "big."
• Earlier plans to open several new hearing offices around the country have been shelved due to lack of funds.
• Astrue has been wondering why it has been many years since SSA has asked Congress for legislation to simplify its processes or reduce its workloads.
• Instructions on the Senior Attorney program are going out "now."
• Astrue feels that he learns more when he takes unscheduled visits to Social Security offices and facilities. [A very wise observation.]
• He described many of Social Security's work processes as being medieval and said that "It's a miracle and a credit to the people that the system still works."
• Astrue said that he was becoming convinced that SSA has too much "bricks and mortar" and that he wanted to put more money in people. [Interesting, but what does it mean?]
• SSA now has 11 cases at the Merit Systems Protection Board against ALJs. [By SSA standards this is a stunningly high number.] He intends for SSA to be much more "proactive" on ALJ discipline. He talked about being heavily involved in ALJ disciplinary matters when he worked at SSA previously and being frustrated at the lack of action on ALJ discipline at that time. He said that there was one current ALJ who was trying to simultaneously hold down a second full time federal job! [OK, who is it?]
  

Federal Register Alert

New proposed digestive system listings will appear in the Federal Register tomorrow. According to Michael Astrue, Social Security Commissioner, who spoke today at the conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR), these will include major changes in the listings concerning liver diseases. These listings will now include the MELD score, a concept previously unknown to the listings. (Much more on Astrue's talk later.)

AARP Working On Social Security Budget

The appropriations bill covering the Social Security Administration is coming up for action on the Senate floor today. From Congressional Quarterly(registration required):

AARP, the biggest U.S. lobbying group for people 50 and older, complained about how little the Labor-HHS bill would provide for Social Security’s administrative expenses. The Senate bill would allocate $9.7 billion, $125 million more than Bush requested. AARP said it was “grateful” for the additional funding, but “the agency needs more funding to avoid additional office closings and an increased disability backlog,” according to AARP official David P. Sloane in an Oct. 16 letter to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus. AARP has 38 million members, or about 12 percent of the U.S. population. Separately, Harkin yesterday criticized Bush for submitting a budget request for Social Security that “would add almost 100,000 disability claims to the backlog.” “We put in $426 million to reduce that backlog,” Harkin said. Social Security last week said it planned to hire about 150 judges and office staff for hearings on disability claims in the spring 2008. Social Security had a backlog of almost 747,000 cases at hearing level as of the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Social Security Budget Comes Up In Senate Tomorrow

The Labor-HHS budget bill comes up for action on the Senate floor tomorrow. This is the budget bill that includes the Social Security Administration.

Another Post On The Baby Boomer Event

From the Entitled To Know blog of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare:

We have to admit to being more than just a little confused when we read press coverage of yesterday’s baby boomer event at the National Press Club. Just in case you missed it, the nation’s first baby boomer, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, filed online for Social Security benefits yesterday to much hoopla.

But what was truly unexpected about this event was the lack of the administration’s usual gloom and doom propaganda. In fact, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue was incredibly reasonable and definitely not singing from the same “sky-is-falling-the-baby-boomers-will-suck-us-dry” hymnal preferred by the Bush administration.

Here is what Commission Astrue said about Social Security’s financial outlook:

“There’s no reason for any immediate panic”
“It’s not catastrophic”
“There’s no factual basis for these ‘nuclear winter’ scenarios
many have described”

Wow. You have to wonder if the White House knows he’s sticking so closely to the facts.

But here’s where we find ourselves down the rabbit hole. While the Bush administration’s Social Security head is telling the straight story on the program’s long-term fiscal picture (unlike what we generally hear elsewhere from this administration), multiple news organizations virtually ignored it in favor of the White House’s crisis propaganda. Almost all of the coverage today parrots the administration’s “we can’t afford the Baby Boomers ” line even though that is not what the SSA Commissioner actually said at this event.

The Washington Post even went so far as to belittle the Commissioner and Casey-Kirschling for having the nerve to express their confidence in Social Security’s future. The media loves a crisis...this isn’t new. However, Social Security is too important to millions of American seniors and their families to play so fast and loose with the facts in the name of headlines.

The First Boomer

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling made an appearance with Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue a couple of days ago. She was dubbed the first baby boomer to apply for Social Security benefits. Here is a background story on Ms. Casey-Kirschling in an old USA Today article. I hate to sound cynical (it's an occupational hazard) but something tells me that Ms. Casey-Kirschling has an agent or publicist. I have a hard time believing that the Social Security Administration would have sought her out.

2.3% COLA

The Associated Press is reporting that the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits will be 2.3% for this year.

ODAR Quality Assurance Program Coming?

Here is another small nugget from Commissioner Astrue's September 13 letter. He says that one initiative he has to work down "aged" cases, that is claims that have been awaiting a hearing for a long time, is to implement a "quality assurance program." He gives no explanation of what he means.

I do not know what this would mean other than some process by which decisions of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are reviewed for "quality" with some action being taken about those that do not exhibit sufficient "quality." The problem is that no one knows what "quality" is when we are talking about ALJ decisions. There is no gold standard. This might permit a Social Security Commissioner to rachet up or down the percentage of claims that are approved by ALJs whenever desired. This is essentially the situation with the "quality assurance" program at the initial and reconsideration levels of review. This is the sort of thing that Social Security Commissioners have desired for a long time. They have long felt that the ALJs are far too independent and need to be brought under some sort of control.

Evidence Submission Restrictions Coming

Here is an excerpt from the September 13 Astrue letter that deserves special attention:

We plan to include many of the hearing level procedures implemented under DSI and now in place for disability cases in the Boston Region into parts 404 and 416 of our rules to reduce the hearing backlog, including time frames for submitting evidence to the ALJ and closing the evidentiary record at the time of the ALJ decision. These changes will expand those rules nation-wide and apply them to hearings on both disability and non-disability matters.

I have seen no evidence that these rule changes will reduce hearing backlogs.

September 13 Astrue Letter

On September 13 Commissioner Astrue sent a lengthy letter to the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that deals with Social Security. I have reproduced the letter in the separate Social Security Perspectives blog. Due to technical limitations in Blogger, the letter is spread over three posts. Click on each individual page to view it full size.

I have not had a chance to study the letter in detail yet, but it is certainly a much more complete budget picture for Social Security than any other document that has been released. It suggests tough times for the current fiscal year, but improvement in the next fiscal year, which will begin on October 1, 2008.