Is This A Good Idea Or Just Too Intrusive?

     From a posting by Social Security on SAM.com:

This is a Request for Information (RFI). This RFI is for informational and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment by the Government.  ...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is conducting market research to identify potential vendors capable of providing record locator services to help identify interactions between a disability claimant and the healthcare system (e.g., physician visits, hospitalizations). ...

During the application process [for Social Security disability benefits], claimants may spend a great deal of time gathering information and trying to remember dates of medical treatment and provider details.  The process relies solely on claimant recall for the names and addresses of medical providers and dates of treatment.  As such, the body of medical evidence assembled for evaluation may be incomplete and omit information that could be critical in making an accurate determination of disability. ...

Technical Requirements:

• The service shall support the ability to accurately identify a patient based on key demographic information supplied by SSA, such as patient name, date of birth, gender, address, and Social Security number.
• The service shall support the ability to provide an encounter/treatment history within a specified timeframe for an identified patient, which consists of a list of treating facilities/providers, including address information, Medical Record Number (MRN), date of encounter, and conditions that were treated or evaluated.
• The service shall support the ability to provide a list of active medications within a specified timeframe for an identified patient, including the prescription date along with the prescribing doctor, facility, and address.
• The service shall support the ability to identify the electronic address of a specific patient’s electronic medical record based on key demographic information supplied by SSA.  ...
• The service shall support the ability to notify SSA when specific patients, identified by key demographic information supplied by SSA, have had medical encounters, and provide information about the treating provider or facility, the date of the encounter, and the electronic location of where the associated electronic medical record could be found.

      I really want for Social Security to have a complete medical record on my clients. I try hard to figure out who they've seen and to help complete the record set that Social Security has. Contrary to what some would think, the problem isn't claimants trying to conceal medical sources they've seen. I don't think that's what this RFI is even about. The problem is that medical histories get complicated and claimants forget. Still, this RFI seems a bit creepy to me. Do we really want the government to have the power to troll across all medical records to find every last bit of records on an individual? To be able to construct a list of prescribed medications at any given moment? Would you want the government having this kind of power to gather your medical records?

If Full Retirement Age Is Based Upon Life Expectancy, Shouldn’t It Go Down Now?

 

     

     To be clear, I think full retirement age should be considered a proxy for the physical infirmities that go along with increasing age rather than life expectancy. We should not be forcing older people to be filing disability claims when their health problems are just to be expected at their age. However, there are others, particularly on the right, who think that full retirement age and life expectancy should be linked, although I think that this stance has had more to do with hostility to the general concept of social security than anything else. Increasing life expectancy gave them an argument to do something they wanted to do anyway -- cut Social Security benefits.

What Do You Think?

bike trails

Two Members Of Congress Call For Improved Service At Social Security

      From a press release:

U.S. Rep. John Katko (R, NY-24) today called on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide information on the agency’s plans to improve access to essential services through the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. This effort comes amid continued disruptions to Social Security services due to the ongoing closure of SSA field offices in Central New York and across the country. Rep. Katko led this bipartisan effort alongside U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D, NY-4).

...Rep. Katko today urged SSA to provide requested information on its timeline for reopening Social Security field offices and expanding in-person appointments, as well as safety precautions the agency will take to protect staff and visitors during the pandemic. ...

 

About A 4% Market Share For Trajector

      Events at Myler Disability which is now a division of Trajector, are fascinating to people like me. That plus the lack of other news in the Social Security world has led me to post a good deal about Trajector this week. However, it's best to understand that while Myler's 2020 revenues were $48.48 million, the total Social Security attorney fees paid in 2020 were $1.08 billion, meaning that Myler only had about a 4% market share. Could a larger entity like Trajector expand that market share? Perhaps, but maybe most claimants prefer to have someone local represent them. Maybe most prefer to meet with their attorney prior to the date of their hearing.

That Was Quick

      Trajector, which had acquired the Myler law firm, which is probably the largest entity representing Social Security disability claimants, has decided to withdraw its initial public offering of shares to the public, citing market conditions.

More On Sale Of Myler Disability

      I posted yesterday about Myler Disability being sold to a much larger company that plans an initial public offering (IPO). Here's some information about the Myler Companies recent financial status from the IPO document (S-1) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Click on image to view full size

     By the way, the purchase price for Myler Disability was $88.2 million. Page 74 of the S-1. Not bad for an entity that was losing money. 

     I keep thinking of Binder and Binder. The owners sold out to a private equity firm. Binder and Binder later ended up bankrupt. There probably won't be a repeat in this case but it's hard not to think of that history.

Myler Disability Acquired By Trajector Which Plans An IPO

      My understanding has been that in recent years the largest entity representing Social Security disability claimants has been Myler Disability, which was based in Utah but which represented claimants across the country. However, I now find out from a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Myler has been acquired by Trajector, Inc., a much larger company which is involved in a number of projects that seems to center around medical records. Trajector has plans to make an initial public offering of $100 million worth of shares to the public. I don't think this has happened yet, however.

     That's all I know, folks. I'd be interested in hearing more from an old Myler employee who is now a Trajector employee or anyone else who knows something about this. 

     By the way, this has more than a few similarities to the Binder and Binder saga -- without the publicity, however.

Has Anything Really Changed?

      I looked back at the numbers on posts on I made on this blog in 2021. The one that was the most read was the one announcing that Andrew Saul had been fired as Commissioner of Social Security. Coming in second was this post from March 8, 2021 which may still have relevance:

     An anonymous e-mail I received:

Hi Charles - I have been reading your blog for years.

I'm a field office manager and felt compelled to share what management has sustained for nearly twelve months.

First off - kudos to SSA for putting somewhat of plan together by sending everyone home after cancelling telework...of course. Since that time things have gotten just awful and unsustainable. 

We don’t have centralized print so management is asked to go in and pack every letter daily. Many ma agents don’t have updated mail machines so we must weigh envelopes individually and seal them by hand. The process takes hours. After outgoing is done all day - we handle incoming. Hundreds of documents from the public daily in some cases. Items go missing regularly. We open every piece and scan them into a program so employees can work. This process is even longer than outgoing mail. When it concludes - the day is likely over. As this work from home progresses we were slowly told things would return to normal but from home. Problem is we don’t the technology - everything at home takes longer. Managers were drowning in mail and still are- the calls exploded - an office like mine went from 600 calls to roughly 2000. We could not keep up - Area directors insisted on 90% answer rates. Workload immediately fell off. Instead of adjusting they increased our PSI goals in one area in particular- ssi redetermination. We had some of the highest targets ever yet we were receiving no help. Through all this management was told they could not work OT because it would look bad. We were told that management doing production was also frowned upon.

Months have passed and the agency did little to aid mgmt. in fact they made it worse. They made exceptions to allow individuals in office and mgmt was asked to pull away from mail to risk ourselves with claimants. It’s ok - they bought flimsy sneeze guard to protect us. When we asked for hazard pay or ability to carryover we were told no.

We have been wildly mistreated by the DCo front office. This year is worse still

For your audience our initials claims have gone from 125 as a goal for an initial decison to 170 days and recons from 118 to 152 days . In short it’s now average 11 months before you make it to a hearing In many cases - replacement cards take a month before processing . Record request from attys - I haven’t been able to get to them in months. You want certified record - that’s 6 months minimum. We are a disaster and holding it all together on the back of managers that are breaking. We are told we can’t let calls go but due to a nearly 500 million budget shortfall we won’t have any OT , are still expected to clear 20% more redeterminations and answer 90% of goals. Oh and all mail most be processed in 60 days.

I could go on forever - I only share to say how truly dire SSA situation is. I also share to show this who represent people that we are in a giant spiral with zero plan.

How out of touch you say - well dco touted a great Mobil check in program that they didn’t realize can’t handle foreign ss5 because a lack of having a number. They actually developed , designed, shared , gloated and didn’t realize its flaws until a manager pointed out the obvious.

Sorry for the rant and misspelling -perhaps you can take some blurbs to share with readers that we aren’t bad - we work hard - we just are given no chance for success and it’s getting worse. Thanks Charles

Happy New Year!