I just took on a client whose Social Security disability claim was medically denied even though the Disability Determination Service knew he recently had a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) installed. No, this wasn't some technical denial. No, there's no date last insured issue. They just flat said he wasn't disabled. An LVAD is a partial artificial heart. In this case, it's being used as a last ditch measure to help the patient survive until a heart transplant is available. This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of thing. I had another client recently who had an LVAD installed. He didn't make it out of the hospital alive after he had it installed. It was obvious he was headed in this direction but he was still denied.
Apr 1, 2017
Mar 31, 2017
Why So Many Disability Claims From Rural Areas?
The Washington Post is running an article on rural disability. There's a far higher incidence of Social Security disability claims in rural areas. The drift of the article is that this is related to the lack of job opportunities in rural areas, i.e., people can't find jobs so they file disability claims.
I think there is a link between lack of job opportunities in rural areas and Social Security disability claims but I think it's more complicated than this article presents. What happens when there are poor job opportunities in an area but better job opportunities elsewhere? Some people leave to pursue job opportunities elsewhere. Those who leave are on average younger, better educated, smarter and healthier than those who stay. Those left behind are people who are more likely to file disability claims regardless of the job opportunities in their community. Those left behind also have much worse access to health care than those who leave. Health care in most rural areas sucks. Even if you have insurance, it's hard to get good medical care and many in rural areas lack health care insurance. You're more likely to get sick and stay sick if you have poor access to health care.
Those of us who represent Social Security disability claimants like to talk about demographics and access to health care as factors in determining who files disability clams. Newspaper reporters don't like to write articles about demographics and access to health care. It's boring. They like nice simplistic explanations since those are easier for them to understand and convey to readers.
By the way, there's nothing new about the higher incidence of disability claims in rural areas. I live in Raleigh, which was a fair sized and relatively prosperous city when I started practicing Social Security law in 1979. Raleigh and surrounding cities such as Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill have gotten much bigger and more prosperous since. This area has always been surrounded by poor rural counties. From the beginning of my practice, I've gotten more clients from the less populous rural areas than from the urban areas. The incidence of disability has always been higher in rural areas.
Mar 30, 2017
Was This Fake News Concocted In Russia?
From the New Jersey Herald:
Widely circulated online reports crediting President Donald Trump for 2017 increases in retirees' Social Security checks don't accurately portray how the system works.
Social Security payments are based on a government measure of inflation, and are set automatically without any involvement of the White House. ...
Some of the online stories accurately use numbers from Social Security's website, showing that the 0.3 percent increase ...
But the figures are not, as one version said, Trump's "first move to fulfill his campaign promise" to protect Social Security.
Mar 29, 2017
Problems At AALJ
There's a dispute at the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), the employee union the represents Social Security's ALJs. The Treasurer is being accused of "mishandling, misappropriating or otherwise misusing union funds or properties." AALJ is part of a larger union, IFPTE (International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers), which is being asked to investigate. You can read the accusation, the response and an audit report. (Access to this uploaded file expires on April 4 so read it while you can and download it if you want to save it.)
Mar 28, 2017
Social Security Gets Hiring Freeze Exceptions
| Granting exceptions |
Upon taking office, Donald Trump did what Republican Presidents have often done in the past, order a federal hiring freeze. This is based upon a general contempt for the work that federal agencies do and the federal employees who do the work.
These hiring freezes always start breaking down as it becomes apparent that voters will be discomfited by understaffed federal agencies. Social Security is usually one of the first agencies where it becomes apparent that a hiring freeze will cause visible problems.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is in charge of administering Trump's hiring freeze and can grant exceptions to it. OPM has now granted an exception to the hiring freeze to allow Social Security to hire Administrative Law Judges, hearing support staff and processing center employees. Unfortunately, there is no exception so far for field office staff.
Mar 27, 2017
Three Rulings Rescinded
From today's Federal Register:
We are rescinding the following SSRs [Social Security Rulings]:
• SSR 96–2p: Titles II and XVI: Giving Controlling Weight to Treating Source Medical Opinions.
• SSR 96–5p: Titles II and XVI: Medical Source Opinions on Issues Reserved to the Commissioner.
• SSR 06–03p: Titles II and XVI: Considering Opinions and Other Evidence from Sources Who Are Not ‘‘Acceptable Medical Sources’’ in Disability Claims; Considering Decisions on Disability by Other Governmental and Nongovernmental Agencies.
These three SSRs are inconsistent or unnecessarily duplicative with our recent final rules, Revisions to Rules Regarding the Evaluation of Medical Evidence, published in the Federal Register on January 18, 2017 (82 FR 5844).
Mar 26, 2017
Still Worried?
If Republicans can't agree on an Obamacare replacement, what are the odds they'll agree on significant changes to Social Security? You can promise all kinds of things in the abstract when you're in the opposition. It's very different when you're voting on real legislation with real consequences for real voters.
Mar 25, 2017
Social Security Prevents Suicides
From the Pacific Standard:
When officials of the Trump administration and the Republican-majority Congress speak of “reforming” entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, the conversation is largely confined to cost-cutting. It’s easy to forget the enormous impact these programs have on Americans’ lives.
A striking reminder comes in a new study, which finds “a significant, sudden drop in suicide rates upon turning 62 years old” — the age at which one becomes eligible for Social Security benefits.
“This decline is large, particularly among males, (and) has emerged for females and widened for males in recent years,” writes economist Jeffrey DeSimone of the University of Alabama–Birmingham.
“Much evidence suggests this discontinuity is attributable to the Social Security early retirement age, more so than the act of retiring itself,” he adds in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy. ...
Mar 24, 2017
Eric Conn Pleads Guilty
From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
Flamboyant Social Security lawyer Eric C. Conn, who won disability checks for thousands of people in Eastern Kentucky but caused heartache for many former clients after he was accused of cheating on cases, pleaded guilty Friday in a federal fraud case.
Conn, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of stealing from the Social Security Administration and one count of bribing a federal judge. ...
He faces up to 12 years in prison. He is to be sentenced July 14. ...
New Ruling On Medical Equivalence
From Social Security Ruling 17-2p, which will be published in the Federal Register on Monday:
At the hearings level or at the AC [Appeals Council] level when the AC issues its own decision, the adjudicator is responsible for the finding of medical equivalence [to a Listing]. The adjudicator must base his or her decision about whether the individual’s impairment(s) medically equals a listing on the preponderance of the evidence in the record. To demonstrate the required support of a finding that an individual is disabled based on medical equivalence at step 3, the record must contain one of the following:
1. A prior administrative medical finding from an MC [Medical Consultant] or PC [Psychological Consultant] from the initial or reconsideration adjudication levels supporting the medical equivalence finding, or
2. ME [Medical Expert] evidence, which may include testimony or written responses to interrogatories, obtained at the hearings level supporting the medical equivalence finding, or
3. A report from the AC’s medical support staff supporting the medical equivalence finding.
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