Washington Post On Social Security Staffing Problems And Medicare

From Stephen Barr's column in the Washington Post:

Staffing problems at the Social Security Administration could make it difficult for field offices to handle increased telephone calls and visits prompted by an upcoming increase in Medicare premiums, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Social Security began mailing notices of the higher, income-based premiums on Monday and expects all 1.6 million affected enrollees to have them in hand by the end of next week. Enrollees may request a recalculation of their premium if they think incorrect tax data have been used to determine their income and set their premium, or if they have recently experienced an income loss from a spouse's death, a divorce or some other "life-changing event."

In a letter sent last week to the Senate Finance Committee, the GAO warned that Social Security is coping with staff shortages and operating under a hiring freeze just as the agency's workload is expected to jump because of the premium increases. The GAO, the congressional auditing agency, noted that the premium change, though approved by Congress in 2003, may come as a surprise to some beneficiaries.

Mark Lassiter, a Social Security spokesman, said the agency plans to shift workloads among field offices if some offices "are getting disproportionately hit" by telephone calls and visits from Medicare beneficiaries.

He expressed confidence that the agency's 1,300 field offices will be able to handle any surge in work. "We do the work we are assigned to get done," he said. ...

The GAO said implementing income-based premiums will cost Social Security an additional $200 million in administrative expenses between fiscal 2006 and 2010.

The extra work comes at a tough time for the agency. Social Security has adopted a hiring freeze because Congress has not been able to complete work on the agency's fiscal 2007 appropriations bill. Agency officials also have warned that it could be forced next year to send employees home without pay, perhaps for as long as 10 days, if Congress does not reverse proposed budget cuts.

Here is a link to the GAO report.

A Year Old

This blog is one year old on this Thanksgiving day. There are now about 600 posts on this blog. As of this morning, Social Security News has been accessed 65,574 times.

I had long felt that what was needed was a better flow of information to all involved with Social Security. With the dramatic growth of the internet, more and more information has become available, yet no one was making a systematic effort to draw it together. I hope that this blog has helped in making information available more freely to everyone with an interest in Social Security matters. I have tried to stick mostly to the "Social Security News" title, by giving news primarily. Certainly, I have offered some opinions as well.

I have been asked a number of times why I do not allow those reading this blog to post comments. Your comments would be interesting, but deleting or editing inappropriate comments would be time consuming. I still have to earn a living as a Social Security attorney. I would be happy to hear comments by e-mail, however. My e-mail address is normall charles[at]charleshallfirm.com, but there could be some technical problems with that e-mail address until Monday or Tuesday of next week because of a recent office move. For now, comments may be sent to me at my home e-mail address: hallcity[at]nc.rr.com.

Georgia Couple Found Guilty Of Fraud

WGCL-TV reports that a Milledgeville, GA couple have been found guilty of fraud on the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration because the husband claimed and received disability benefits from both agencies for post traumatic stress disorder related to combat in Viet Nam, when the man had not seen combat in Viet Nam. It is not clear from the article what crime the wife was charged with.

No Congressional Action On SSA Appropriation

The House and Senate are now in recess until December 5. The Library of Congress Thomas site shows that no final action has been taken in either body on the Fiscal Year 2007 Labor/HHS/Education Appropriation Bill, which includes Social Security. There will be only a short Congressional session after the Thanksgiving recess before this Congress adjourns sine die. Republicans have already decided not to try to pass the spending bills according to the Associated Press, leaving Social Security operating off a continuing funding resolution until after the new Congress, controlled by Democrats, convenes.

New Vision Listing

Today's Federal Register includes new final vision listings for Social Security. The entire Federal Register item runs to three column pages. As has become usual, there is a lengthy preamble to the listing. Here is the key text of the new listing:

2.01 Category of Impairments, Special Senses and Speech

2.02 Loss of visual acuity. Remaining vision in the better eye after best correction is 20/200 or less.

2.03 Contraction of the visual field in the better eye, with:

A. The widest diameter subtending an angle around the point of fixation no greater than 20 degrees;

OR

B. A mean deviation of –22 or worse, determined by automated static threshold perimetry as described in 2.00A6a(v);

OR

C. A visual field efficiency of 20 percent or less as determined by kinetic perimetry (see 2.00A7b).

2.04 Loss of visual efficiency. Visual efficiency of the better eye of 20 percent or less after best correction (see 2.00A7c).

SSA Wants Info From "Bulk Providers"

Social Security posted a "Request for Information" today. The "bulk providers" they are talking about are, for the most part, attorneys and others representing Social Security claimants. This is an excerpt from what Social Security posted:

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information on behalf of the Social Security Administration (SSA). SSA is investigating new ways for people to file applications for SSA Retirement and Disability benefits. Among the options being considered is a process to collect bulk data from third parties who wish to assist claimants filing for SSA and/or other types of benefits. The goal of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input from potential third party providers to determine the need for and feasibility of SSA building a web service or other electronic means to obtain claims data in bulk from them.

The RFI results will enable SSA to project potential volumes, data quality, and other factors for a Cost Benefit Analysis of the concept. Ultimately, we will attempt to determine whether we can maximize the use of third party data to streamline the claims submittal process for both third parties and SSA, while ensuring there is sufficient data to constitute a claim for benefits upon which SSA can act.

Nothing in this document shall be construed as obligating the Government to issue a solicitation. NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED BASED ON RESPONSES TO THIS RFI.

Treasury Secretary Pushes Social Security Reform

From Yahoo News:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday the healthy economy creates an ideal chance to address concerns about the long-term financing concerns of the Social Security government retirement program and pledged to engage both political parties in debate.

"It's a good time to deal with it just because our economy's so strong and economic policies are working well, and we're better off dealing with this at a time of strength," he said in answers to questions after speaking to the Economic Club of New York.

New York Times Opposes Biggs Nomination

Some excerpts from the editorial page of today's New York Times:

A day after the midterm elections, President Bush announced that he had deputized Henry Paulson Jr., the secretary of the Treasury, to work with the new Congress on reforming Social Security. ... In an interview with The Times after the announcement, he [Bush] stressed the importance of bipartisanship. “We were going to have to build a consensus, no matter who won the election,” he said.

But then Mr. Bush nominated Andrew Biggs, a zealous advocate of privatizing Social Security, to a six-year term as the next deputy commissioner of Social Security. ...

Mr. Paulson — who has a reputation for pragmatism — could indeed be the right person to take the lead on developing a new set of reforms. But with the nomination of Mr. Biggs, Mr. Bush is signaling that he doesn’t want new ideas.

Mr. Bush’s choice of Mr. Biggs is also no favor to the man he has nominated to be the next commissioner of Social Security, Michael Astrue, a businessman who was an official in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. In a public exchange of letters before the election, Mr. Astrue told Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and Senator Max Baucus of Montana that he would follow the practice of the current commissioner, Jo Anne Barnhart, who has steered clear of the privatization debate....

The Times is mistaken on this last sentence. Astrue did not promise in his letter to stay out of the privatization debate. Astrue made a vague promise to be something like Barnhart, but made no specific committment on staying out of the privatization debate.Astrue may have already made some private committment to Democrats in the Senate, but his letter said no such thing. For that matter, Barnhart herself did not stay out of the debate completely, having contributed an op ed piece to the New York Times supporting privatization and having testified before the House Social Security Subcommittee more or less in favor of privatization, although her testimony, which came at a time when it was already clear that the President's plan would fail, did not sound like a ringing endorsement.