SSI Recipients By County

Social Security has released statistics on the number of SSI recipients by county. As boring as this sounds, it is useful to attorneys who represent Social Security claimants, because it shows where the prospective clients live -- and that does not correspond as closely as one might think to the total population of an area.

Payments to Dead People

Social Security has had a problem over the years with paying benefits to people who have died. Great strides have been made in dealing with this problem and the number of cases of improper payments to deceased individuals has been dramatically decreased, but some problems remain. Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recently compared the Department of Veteran's Affairs list of deceased veterans against the Social Security benefit rolls and found Social Security benefits being paid to 228 deceased veterans. Since the VA itself cannot be aware of all veterans' deaths and since most Social Security benefits recipients are not veterans, the true scope of the problem has to be quite a bit bigger.

SSA To Hold Leadership Symposium in Boston in December

The Social Security Administration is seeking hotel space in Boston for a "Leadership Symposium" from December 4 through December 7. It seems more than likely that this has something to do with the Disability Service Improvement plan that begins in the Boston Region on August 1. Here is an excerpt from the solicitation:

The Social Security Administration has a requirement for a hotel that can provide the necessary services for a conference to be held in Boston, MA on December 4, 2006 through December 7, 2006. Sleeping rooms are not part of this acquisition, as attendees are responsible for making their own reservations for sleeping rooms. However, the facility must be able to accommodate 175 sleeping rooms for the nights of the conference. The facility must be able to provide meeting room/ballroom space(3,400 sq. ft) to accommodate 175 participants for plenary sessions, five soundproof breakout session rooms (each 700 sq ft), and audiovisual equipment to include LCD projectors, screens, electrical cords, carts, microphone and podium, flipcharts, and flipchart paper and markers. The facility must also provide full catering services for morning and afternoon breaks, one evening reception, and two mandatory lunches.

Update -- June 22, 2006: Social Security is already changing its mind on the date for the conference. It is now listed as being either January 16-19, 2007 or January 29-February 1, 2007.

Issue New Social Security Cards?

Martin Gerry, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Disability and Income Security Programs, testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the issues and problems involved in improving Social Security card security. The fact that Gerry was testifying about an issue that is clearly not within his offical duties -- disability and SSI -- is an indication of the scope of Gerry's actual responsibilities at Social Security.

Many are calling for issuance of new Social Security cards to all Americans. Gerry detailed the considerable costs involved:

Last year, we estimated that a card with enhanced security features would cost approximately $25.00 per card, not including the start-up investments associated with the purchase of equipment needed to produce and issue this type of card. According to estimates made last year, reissuance of all new cards for the 240 million cardholders over age 14 would be approximately $9.5 billion. Since that estimate, we know that the cost of issuing SSN cards has increased by approximately $3.00 per card due to new requirements for additional verification of evidence, so we anticipate an increase in the total cost estimate when we update our figures to reflect current dollar costs.

Currently, staff of the agency devotes approximately 3,300 work years of effort to the SSN card issuance process. Last year’s estimate indicates that we would need an additional 67,000 work years to process 240 million new cards. This would require hiring approximately 34,000 new employees if we were required to complete the work within 2 years and 14,000 new employees to complete the work in 5 years. This estimate assumes replacing cards for 240 million individuals; if fewer were replaced, the cost would be lower. An approach that mandated new tamper resistant cards would be issued only during the normal course of initial issuance and reissuance would involve relatively modest additional costs. If a phased approach were mandated that limited new cards to only the approximately 30 million people who change jobs at least once during a year and the additional 5 million young people reaching age 14, the cost would be approximately $1.5 billion per year, using last years cost numbers.

Why Does SSA Need to Hire 90 Nurse Case Managers For Disability Service Improvement?

The Government Accountability Office Report on the Disability Service Improvement (DSI) plan, delivered at last week's House Social Security Subcommittee hearing, contains the news that as part of DSI Social Security plans to hire 90 nurse case managers by the end of 2006. By contrast, Social Security plans to hire 103 Reviewing Officers by the end of 2006. The GAO report says the following about the nurse case managers:

In addition, SSA is creating a Medical and Vocational Expert System, staffed by a unit of nurse case managers who will oversee a national network of medical, psychological, and vocational experts, which are together responsible for assisting adjudicators in identifying and obtaining needed expertise.

Why does Social Security need almost as many nurse case managers as Reviewing Officers? The "national network" does not exist at this time as anything other than a hazy concept, at least insofar as the public has been informed. In Region I there may not be as many as 90 people total employed by state disability determination units as physicans and vocational experts. Why are 90 people needed to manage them?

Why would this "national network" need anyone with the title of "nurse case manager" anyway? Here is a definition of "case management" from the Commission for Case Management Certification (CCMC): which certifies nurses as case managers:

Case management is a collaborative process that assesses, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors, and evaluates the options and services required to meet the client's health and human service needs. It is characterized by advocacy, communication, and resource management and promotes quality and cost-effective interventions and outcome

The CCMC goes on to state:

Case management is an area of specialty practice within one's health and human services profession. Its underlying premise is that everyone benefits when clients reach their optimum level of wellness, self-management, and functional capability: the clients being served; their support systems; the health care delivery systems; and the various payer sources.

This does not sound like a job in which an individual merely makes sure that physicians and vocational experts are available for consultation with decisionmakers. It sounds a lot like someone who would work directly with a claimant to try to get him or her back to work. That is how nurse case managers have been used by insurance companies dealing with workers compensation and long term disability (LTD) cases. Nurse case managers in workers compensation and LTD cases often end up in an adversarial relationship with the people whose cases they are managing.

At a time when Social Security's resources are stretched to the point that the Commissioner of Social Security is threatening to furlough employees, the nurse case manager position must be an incredibly high priority to justify hiring 90 new employees. That justification is not immediately obvious. The temptation is to suspect that some controversial role for the nurse case managers is in the works.

SSAB Report

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has pulled together an interesting report of the status of Social Security's disability programs. It is primarily a statistical report with many interesting charts and graphic displays.

Social Security Employee Furloughs On The Way?

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Jo Anne Barnhart, Commissioner of Social Security threatened to send Social Security employees home for a week without pay if the agency receives additional budget cuts. She described the situation as "very serious." Barnhart predicted that budget cuts already approved would cause serious problems and stated that she would like to hire 100 additional Administrative Law Judges, but would be unable to hire any in the next year without additional funds.

A Letter To The Editor

From the St. Petersberg Times:

Try calling the Social Security office in Port Richey and see how frustrated you get.

"Here's a thought. ...''

That's the lead-in to a recorded message that tells you about a Web site you can visit for general information about Social Security or to obtain forms to fill out. No claim or appeal assistance is available from this site.

When you call this number, this message plays four times with on-hold silence between and then it clicks and cuts off your call. No matter which selection you chose, the same thing happens.

Apparently, the next available person to help you is never available because after trying for 14 working days straight, eight to 10 times each day, there has been no way to get anyone to answer the phone. This is the response my friend has received while trying to obtain information regarding a Social Security disability claim appeal. The appeal was mailed return-receipt requested on May 10. There is a time limit of 60 days for filing an appeal of this nature, so time is of the essence.

Not being able to get an answer from the Port Richey office, my friend contacted the 800 phone number for Social Security to see if they could be of assistance. Their response was that nothing had been entered into the main computer files regarding this appeal and that her only recourse was to contact the Port Richey office.

My friend has subsequently learned from the Social Security office that claims are processed in the order in which they are received and that there is only one person assigned to process these claims. This person happens to be on vacation at this time, so not only are these claims being put into a pile, according to when they were received, but that pile is going unprocessed because of a vacation.

It is understood that processing these claims takes time; however, it is not understood why it should take such a long time to get them put back into the system for processing. It has already been one month since the appeal was sent.

Lives are being put on hold. Is this how the government responds to helping a disabled citizen who has no other source of income or any other source of assistance? These citizens certainly did not put the government on hold and then cut them off repeatedly when paying into Social Security for so many years and their contributions did not stop while they were on vacation.

Here's a thought: How is it that such a huge and powerful government can assign only one person to control thousands of claims and do it in a timely fashion?

Here's another thought: Someone with the authority to intercede on behalf of these poor individuals with the Social Security Administration should step up and do so on behalf of these citizens.

Gary Morrow, Hudson

Mr. Morrow does not know it, but this could and, indeed, would have happened almost anywhere in the country.