About That Priority Processing At The Appeals Council -- No One At The Appeals Council Seems To Know Anything About It

     I posted some information that Social Security had given to the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) about a plan for the Appeals Council to give priority in the processing of the cases of certain claimants. The most important category in the plan is claimants 55 and older.

     I've noticed and others in my firm have noticed that despite this plan claimants 55 and older don't seem to be getting any special treatment at the Appeals Council. We're starting to ask questions. Here's a note that one legal assistant at my firm put in our database concerning her inquiry about one client:

05/19/16: TC [Telephone Call] to the AC [Appeals Council] and spoke to ____ who told me the case is pending in branch ____. I told her about the new list that NOSSCR has put out this month for expediting AC cases and this case meets that list since the clt is over 55yo. She didn't know anything about it and transferred me to the supervisor, ______. Spoke to her at length and she pulled it up on the blog [this blog] and said they haven't been told anything about it and she doesn't even know how to flag a case for these reasons.

She's going to speak to the Council Ombudsman, Terry Jensen about this and call me back

Stealing From The Disabled

     From the Tampa Bay Times:

The former chief financial officer of a program for disabled people admits in a court paper that he and others diverted $617,435 in Social Security payments, raiding client personal accounts for a decade to cover operating expenses.

Frank Pannullo, 69, is the third employee of the now-defunct Hillsborough Association for Retarded Citizens to enter into a federal plea agreement. ...

HARC, which had been renamed the Hillsborough Achievement and Resource Centers before it closed in 2013, ran group homes and community programs, caring for people with disabilities such as Down syndrome or Alzheimer's disease. ...

Residents had individual bank accounts. Each month, HARC deducted $637 for expenses, leaving the rest behind.

But if accumulated savings topped $2,000, clients were at risk of losing need-based Supplemental Security Income.

So HARC put away the excess in a separate, pooled account that collected about $617,435 over the course of 10 years. ...

Not long after the account's 2001 creation, Pannullo and the CEO began taking money out of it to feed HARC's operating fund, according to the plea agreement. ...

Hearing On Social Security Information Systems

     The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing at 9:00 on May 26 on Social Security's information systems. No further details are available at this point other than that this is a hearing before the whole committee.

Cut Government Until It Bleeds And Then Complain About The Bloodstains

     The Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing yesterday on Protecting Social Security From Waste, Fraud and Abuse. The only witness was Patrick O'Carroll, who will soon be leaving his position as Inspector General at Social Security. I don't see anything particularly new in his prepared remarks.

     The ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Xavier Becerra, entered an interesting statement in the record. Here is an excerpt:

Congress’ current trend of prioritizing program integrity activities at the expense of service to applicants, beneficiaries, and taxpayers is unsustainable.
Social Security’s budget should not be treated as a zero-sum game. We should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

In my six years as Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, not once have we held a hearing on SSA’s operating budget.

There is no question that funding for program integrity is absolutely integral to ensuring that Americans receive benefits in the right amount, and that only those who are eligible receive payments.

But it is equally important to ensure that: SSA has the tools and resources needed to provide quick and timely service to the millions of Americans receiving Social Security, and to the millions more who will – in the coming years – be applying and qualifying for the benefits they and their families have earned.

     Below are some charts from the statement illustrating the problems at Social Security.

 

     By the way, Becerra's name gets mentioned from time to time as a potential Vice-Presidential candidate.

Social Security's Biggest Contractors

     Social Security is required by law to publish an annual list of its largest contractors. Here's the top twenty-five from the list for 2015, although the list may be somewhat misleading since some contractors are listed more than once:

Vendor Name	Amount
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION	$99,367,423.18
NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION	$94,089,718.92
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION	$48,663,052.74
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE	$40,155,560.67
ACCENTURE NATIONAL SECURITY SERVICES, LLC	$28,811,804.81
M V M, INC.	$23,115,406.92
KONIAG TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, INC	$17,787,707.12
MAXIMUS FEDERAL SERVICES, INC.	$16,385,736.00
AVAYA FEDERAL SOLUTIONS, INC.	$16,149,021.77
OBXTEK INC.	$12,634,046.00
ABT ASSOCIATES INC	$11,667,000.00
INTEGRYS ENERGY SERVICES, INC.	$11,300,000.00
AHTNA ENGINEERING SERVICES	$10,769,172.00
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION	$10,100,531.54
ACS FEDERAL SOLUTIONS LLC	$9,823,987.24
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE	$7,500,000.00
EPS CORPORATION	$7,269,839.67
OBXTEK INC.	$7,077,128.00
NORTHROP GRUMMAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GLOBAL CORPORATION	$6,904,176.80
NATIONAL CAPITOL CONTRACTING, LLC	$6,840,000.00
NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION	$6,549,313.86
HENSEL PHELPS SERVICES LLC	$6,360,948.96
BROOKS RANGE CONTRACT SERVICES, INC.	$6,358,150.68
NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION	$6,153,296.70

Priority Processing At The Appeals Council -- What A List!

     This month's issue of the newsletter (not available online) of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) has an article prepared by the Social Security on priority processing at the Appeals Council, which has a huge backlog. Here's an excerpt:

A list of the Appeals Council-level cases with newly submitted evidence is generated several times a week. A group of employees has started screening the listed cases to see if they meet any of the 21 circumstances below. If so, the branch chief receives the case and assigns it for priority processing. The circumstances are:

(1) Age 55
(2) Any indication or report of death
(3) Hospice, nursing care, or claimant cannot care for personal needs
(4) Intensive care unit for more than 3 days
(5) Hospitalization for more than 7 days
(6) Transplant notes (kidney, heart, heart/lung, liver or bone marrow, etc.)
(7) Transplant waiting list
(8) Cancer with poor or no response to treatment
(9) Cancer that has spread to other areas/
(10) Coma
(11) Heart attack or myocardial infarction
(12) Stroke, or cerebral vascular accident
(13) Prescribed use of home oxygen 
(14) Prescribed use of wheelchair
(15) VA disability rating of 70% or more
(16) Letter or notice approving other forms of disability payments
(17) Medical report(s) of a terminal prognosis
(18) Dialysis or End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
(19) Blood transfusion(s)
(20) Bed or home confinement
(21) Very rare, unusual, or compassionate allowance diagnoses

Although attaining the age of 55 is on the list, it is not necessary to submit additional evidence of a claimant’s age as SSA also screens for this. If the claimant has died, representative correspondence to that effect is sufficient. NOSSCR is working with SSA to obtain written documentation of this practice.

To verify that the Appeals Council knows a client meets one of the 21 circumstances, call the Congressional and Public Affairs Branch at 1-877-670-2722 or fax Appeals Council Ombudsman Terry Jensen at 703-605-8691.

Cases that meet one of the 21 circumstances still should not be decided in less than 25 days unless the Appeals Council obtains permission from the claimant or representative to make a faster decision. See adjacent article on this page for more information.

     This is a far more extensive list of types of cases to be expedited than is used at the Administrative Law Judge level. Why shouldn't these cases by expedited at all levels?
     I think the existence of these lists of types of cases to be expedited demonstrates the pressures caused by backlogs at Social Security. This isn't about helping people who are hurting. They're trying to expedite the cases that would make for good newspaper or television pieces on the suffering caused by the backlog.

Social Security Subcommittee Schedules Hearing On "Protecting Social Security from Waste, Fraud, and Abuse"

     The House Social Security Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for 10:00 on May 18 on "Protecting Social Security from Waste, Fraud, and Abuse." No specifics are given at this point. At the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee hearing last week there was a mention of some fraud case that would be bigger than the allegations against Eric Conn but no specifics were mentioned. Perhaps there will be some indictment or indictments this week.

I Have Some Questions

     I had time over the weekend to watch the hearing held last week by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Operations on Social Security's plan to bring in some Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to hold some hearings now being held by Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). The Committee members asked thoughtful questions but I have some questions that I wished they had asked:

1. Will AAJ decisions be subject to quality assurance reviews either before or after the decision is issued? 
2. What productivity does Social Security expect from these AAJs, especially considering the travel they will be doing?
3. Will all the AAJs be located in the Falls Church, VA area where the Appeals Council is located or will some be located around the country?
4. Hearing non-disability cases, especially those other than overpayment cases, takes unusual knowledge. Will there be extraordinary training for these AAJs? Do not assume that even experienced Social Security attorneys have this knowledge because they don't.
5. Social Security indicates that geographic limitations imposed by ALJ applicants make it difficult for them to hire. Many applicants may want to work in some offices while few, if any, want to work in other offices. However, a new, much larger register is due out in about a year. Presumably, there will then be multiple candidates for each office with an opening. Why not just hire ALJs now where you can and then hire later for the other offices for which you currently lack candidates? It's not like there's an oversupply of ALJs anywhere.
6. Social Security says that currently 30% of claimants opt out of video hearings. Isn't that still going to require AAJs to do a lot of traveling, doing one hearing at one location, then getting on a plane to another location to do one more hearing?
7. Will the opt out figure stay at 30% if Social Security goes ahead with this plan? Social Security has a history of short-sighted thinking on this issue. They thought that requiring claimants to opt out of video hearings shortly after filing a request for hearing would result in fewer claimants opting out of video hearings but the exact opposite happened. I expect there are many attorneys now who don't bother opting out of video hearings since they think it unlikely that Social Security would try to schedule video hearings for their clients. Go ahead with this plan and attorney behavior may change. Maybe I'm wrong on this but I correctly guessed that requiring claimants to opt out of video hearings shortly after filing a request for hearing would result in more claimants opting out of video hearings.

The Inadequacy Of Online Claims Filing

     Note to anyone who thinks Social Security will soon be able to transact all its business online: You still can't file a claim for Supplemental Security Income Benefits online. You can't even file a claim for Disabled Widows or Widowers Benefits online. Social Security has a long way to go with its online systems and I've seen little, if any, progress in years. To repeat, I've seen little, if any, progress in years in Social Security's online systems in years.

Are White-Collar Workers Susceptible To Age-Related Loss Of Job Skills?

     The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has issued a brief report on How Do Job Skills That Decline With Age Affect White-Collar Workers? It's far from definitive but the authors' conclusion is that white collar jobs do require skills that decline with age and some white collar jobs are more susceptible to this than others. Two examples would be airline pilot and photographer. 

     The authors try to scale jobs based upon susceptibility to age-related loss of job skills. Here's a couple of charts from the report: