Full Ways And Means Committee Hearing On Social Security Backlog

I had openly wondered when we would get a hearing of the Social Security Subcommittee at which Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue would testify. It has been almost a year since he has testified before the Social Security Subcommittee, which is part of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives.

A hearing has finally been scheduled for April 23 at 10:00, but it is not before the Social Security Subcommittee, but before the whole Ways and Means Committee, raising this to a much higher level of visibility! Although no witness list has been issued, I think that we can presume that Commissioner Astrue will be testifying. The focus of this hearing goes well beyond the hearing backlogs. Staffing levels and adequacy of public service throughout the agency are the issue.

Here is an excerpt from the press release on the hearing:

In recent years, SSA’s workload has grown significantly due to the aging of the population and new responsibilities stemming from Medicare and homeland security legislation. Despite a productivity increase of more than 15 percent since 2001, the administrative funding SSA has received has been well below the level needed to keep up with this growing workload. From Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 through FY 2007, SSA received a cumulative total of $1.3 billion less than was requested by the President, and $4.6 billion less than the Commissioner’s own budget for the agency.

As a result, by the end of calendar year 2007, SSA staffing had dropped to almost the level in 1972 – before the start of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program – even though SSA’s beneficiary population has nearly doubled since that time.

Due to the combination of rising claims as the baby boom generation ages and prolonged underfunding, Social Security and SSI disability claims backlogs have reached unprecedented levels. More than 1.3 million applicants for disability benefits are currently awaiting a decision on their claim, and total waiting times often extend into years. In addition, as SSA tries to address the backlog crisis, the agency is forced to divert its limited resources away from its day-to-day operations in field offices and payment processing centers in order to try to manage the disability backlog. The result is an increase in long lines, delays, busy signals, and unanswered telephones, and growing concern about closures and consolidations of local field offices. Resource shortages have also forced the agency to cut back on program integrity activities, even though such activities have been demonstrated to generate considerable savings to the Trust Fund.

Under the President’s FY 2009 proposed budget, the agency would be able to make modest progress toward addressing the disability claims backlog, but service in the field would continue to decline. Moreover, proposals to assign additional workloads to SSA, such as expanding SSA’s role in verifying the work-authorization status of employees, would, if enacted and not funded in full each year, force SSA to shift scarce resources away from its core functions to carry out these new workloads.

In announcing the hearing, Chairman Rangel said, “We are alarmed by the deterioration in service to our constituents and the suffering of those who must wait years to receive benefits they desperately need. Despite its well-earned reputation for being a can-do agency, the Social Security Administration simply cannot do its job without adequate funding. We have been working on a bipartisan basis to address this problem, and will continue to do so until the disability claims backlog is eliminated and SSA’s capacity to provide high quality service to the public is restored.”

E-Mail From Commissioner To SSA And DDS Employees

Note the information about the second national hearing center in Albuquerque and the expansion of the national hearing center in Falls Church. Does anyone not in higher management at Social Security think this is a good idea?

Note also that most of the new employees will be going not to hearing offices or field offices, but to teleservice centers. It looks as if inability to answer telephones at the field offices is not perceived as nearly as big a problem as inability to answer the 800 phone calls.

Note finally the cherry picking of a newspaper article praising Social Security service. Certainly, many offices and individual Social Security employees deserve praise. I am happy to post links to such newspaper articles when I find them. It is just that there are not many of them. I had not seen this particular one.

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:43 PM
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--04/15/08

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: Important Issues Update

Last November, I said that I would update you on important issues. What follows is some information about our staffing situation, our efforts to reduce the disability backlog, our progress on some of our online service initiatives and other recent developments.

Staffing

I am pleased to report that we recently received this year’s appropriation, which gave us an extra $148 million and has allowed me to lift our current hiring freeze and provide some needed hiring flexibility to all components. This is the first time in 15 years that we have received an appropriation above the President’s budget. These resources will put us in a better position in FY 2009 to improve service to the public.

Each component will have at least one-for-one hiring authority; i.e., each will be able to hire as many employees as have left or will leave the Agency this year. We also will use the extra funding to strengthen our direct service components and for our plan to reduce the hearings backlog. To that end, I have given Operations permission to hire 3,900 employees, 1,300 employees more than the expected losses for this year. Also, out of those 3,900 additional staff, we will bolster the 800‑number operation by hiring 835 employees, which is a replacement rate of about two employees hired for each employee who leaves. ODAR will be able to hire 175 administrative law judges (ALJs), plus additional ALJs for a new National Hearing Center (NHC) in Albuquerque and to expand the Falls Church NHC. It also will add 143 additional support staff by the end of the fiscal year. We also will be able to continue with automation improvements.

As you may know, the President recently submitted his request to Congress for our FY 2009 funding. He has asked for $10.46 billion, which is a 6 percent increase over this year’s funding. If we are given that amount, it would be the largest percentage increase that we will have received in many years.

Disability

We have rolled out the quick disability determination (QDD) procedure to the entire country, and the DDSs have done a great job with it. In January, they reduced their processing time for these cases to an average of just six days. I thought you might enjoy reading the following letter to the editor about a case that was processed through the QDD procedure.

A letter to the editor of the Hot Springs, Ark., Sentinel-Record titled “Top Customer Service”:

Dear Editor: “We must commend the Hot Springs Social Security Office for its speed and efficiency in processing our claim. We filed online for disability January 25^th and had a check deposited into our account on February 5^th. The claim had to be processed with some local office assistance, but I don’t think you could ask for better service than this.”

This is a well-deserved compliment on our efforts to improve processing times of the most critical cases.

In addition, the comparable fast-track process, compassionate allowances, is moving along well, and we should begin the pilot in late summer or early fall.

To help with the hearings backlog, we recently hired 135 ALJs and will select another 40 before the end of the fiscal year and additional ALJs for the NHCs. While cases pending continue to rise (although at a lower rate than in the recent past), average processing time is down slightly, and we continue to eliminate the oldest cases in an impressive fashion. Since the hearings staff has increased its production, a difficult situation is improving rather than worsening.

Looking forward, we have reason for optimism about driving down the hearings backlog. By the end of this calendar year, we expect that the paper cases should be substantially gone. Next year, our new ALJs should be fully productive. When we reach these two milestones (and assuming we are not under a continuing resolution for a significant period of time), we expect to hit a “tipping point” and to see the number of pending hearings begin to drop dramatically.

Online Initiatives

The two-stage effort to improve the Internet Social Security Benefit Application (ISBA) is moving along nicely. The application will be significantly streamlined, and the online version significantly more user-friendly. The prototype of the online version looks terrific, and I think you will be excited when you see it. This new online ISBA will take about 15 minutes on average to file over the Internet, instead of the current 45 minutes. We expect to complete the first stage by September 27.

The second stage, which will include automatic adjudication of the simplest retirement claims, won’t be ready until 2010 due to the number of back-end systems changes it requires. Stage two will provide applicants with additional functionality, including the ability to look up their earnings history and expected benefit amounts online. This release will allow some claims to be effectuated without manual intervention. Automatic adjudication will free up about 10 minutes of processing time per application, which will allow us to perform other functions and improve our public service.

We are continuing our efforts to eliminate the need to request routine information directly from applicants for benefits. For example, we have already eliminated the need for retirement applicants to present proof of age when their allegations match the information in the Numident. These changes will not only make us more efficient, but also will allow our field offices more time for those interviews that require subtlety, experience and judgment.

All of you have been great about making suggestions for improvements. We have made a number of changes with iAppeals based on input from employees in the field. In addition, we made one change recently based on a hallway conversation that I had with an employee who suggested that we make better use of the back of our envelopes. Based on that employee’s suggestion, envelopes containing the 150 million Social Security Statements we send out each year will now deliver the message: “Save a trip. Visit www.socialsecurity.gov.”

I am very proud of the imagination, professionalism, “can-do” spirit and unwavering dedication to public service that you bring to work every day. One person who exemplifies these qualities is Deborah Carryer, who this month will receive the Employee of the Year Award from “CAREERS of the disABLED” Magazine. Deb is the District Manager of the Royal Oak, Mich., Field Office and advises, “Take some risks and try new things. You may just find out that you are good at it and like it!” Sound advice that all of us can take to heart. Please join me in congratulating Deb on her well‑deserved award.

As time goes by, I look forward to sharing more information with you on these and other exciting happenings. In the meantime, thanks again for all that you do in service to the American public.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

Advance Notice On Cardiovascular Disorders Listings

Tomorrow's Federal Register will contain an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on cardiovascular disorder listings. You can read the notice today. There is nothing in the notice indicating where the Social Security Administration may go on these listings.

New York Congressman Calls For More ALJs

From Buffalo Business First:

Applicants in Western New York seeking a hearing for Social Security benefits have to wait nearly two years, one of the worst processing times in the country.

Such delays have prompted Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, to ask the federal agency to add more administrative law judges to the seven-county region, which includes Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Monroe and Ontario counties.

In a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue, Higgins noted administrative law judges working the Buffalo area office have an average of 895 pending cases, among the largest caseloads in the nation. Also, the average length of each claim is 381 days. Figures are cited from the SSA's March 2008 hearing office report.

Albuquerque Social Security Building Evacuated

KRQE in Albuquerque, NM reports that the federal building in that city has been evacuated because of the smell of burning wires. Apparently, there is a Social Security field office in the building.

Plan To Close Half Of Social Security's Field Offices?

From the National Council Digest, put out by the Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union that represents much of the Social Security Administration's labor force:

The Social Security Administration has devised a plan that would close nearly half of its 1,300 field offices around the United States. “Just three years ago, President Bush was pushing privatization,” said Witold Skwierczynski, President of Council 220. “That proposal failed miserably, but now the White House and high-ranking SSA officials apparently believe they can achieve the same goal by simply getting rid of offices that have 15 or fewer employees.” Council 220 represents over 28,000 Social Security employees, and Skwierczynski has written a letter to hundreds of members of Congress warning them about this proposal and how it will directly affect their district and constituents.

Union Says Mangers Are Critical Of Electronic Services

From the National Council Digest, a newsletter put out by Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a labor union that represents much of Social Security's workforce:

A study commissioned by Social Security but recently leaked to DIGEST [a column in the newsletter] shows that just 16% of managers consider electronic services “very effective.” An even higher number view them as “not very” or “not at all effective.” The agency has been pushing this type of service delivery program (which involves using the internet) at the same time it reduces staffing at field offices and teleservice centers around the United States. “I’m not surprised by these results,” says Debbie Fredericksen, the Executive Vice President of Council 220. “Managers will always do what they’re told – but some of them will also speak their mind when given a chance.” The online survey was sent to more than 3,400 managers; there were eleven questions and the agency received 1,652 responses. The poll also revealed that only 28% of manag-ers rate their staffs as “very knowledgeable.” One in ten described their employees as “not very” or “not at all knowledgeable.”

Disability Claims In The Making

Fee Payment Stats

The Social Security Administration has released updated statistics on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants. This is a good analogue for the payment of benefits to newly approved Social Security disability claimants, since the attorney and client are paid at about the same time.

As those familiar with the process know, these payments often speed up and slow down dramatically. As best I can tell, there are two major reasons for these speedups and slowdowns: at times payment center employees get pulled off their normal duties to answer calls 800 number (called "spiking," since it is in response to spikes in 800 number calls) and overtime may or may not be available.

Here are the most recent stats:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-08	20,559	$75,368,163.45
Feb-08	26,570	$95,228,284.32
Mar-08	23,088	$83,166,027.02

Hearing On Compassionate Allowances

From a Social Security news release:

The Social Security Administration held its second public hearing on compassionate allowances - a way to expedite the processing of disability claims for applicants whose medical conditions are so severe that their conditions obviously meet Social Security’s standards. At the hearing, Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced that the agency had entered into a first-of-its-kind agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH will provide technical assistance to Social Security to help ensure that elements of the compassionate allowance initiative are based on sound, up-to-date medical science. ...

The hearing, held today in Boston, featured some of the nation’s leading oncology experts presenting testimony and sharing their views about the best ways to determine compassionate allowances for children and adults with cancers. Once implemented, Social Security can quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances based on confirmation of the diagnosis alone; for example, acute leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and pancreatic cancer. The agency plans to begin piloting compassionate allowances later this year and plans to hold two more public hearings on the initiative as well.

I have news for Commissioner Astrue. Social Security and Disability Determination Service employees are not stupid or uncaring; at least, the vast majority are not. They already issue quick decisions in such cases. That is not a problem. Going ahead with this compassionate allowance silliness demonstrates that Commissioner Astrue has no idea what goes on in the field. He wishes to concentrate upon his own fantasies that the backlogs are a problem that can be addressed with simple, easy solutions instead of accepting than the reality that there is no solution for Social Security's backlogs that does not call for spending a lot more money and hiring a lot more employees. But, then, perhaps Astrue does realize this and these hearings are nothing more than empty gestures. In either case, whatever money is being spent on these hearings would have done more good if it had been spent on hiring another employee or two