Hearing Backlog Ideas That Can Be Implemented Quickly -- Installment I

The only real solution for Social Security's humongous hearing backlog is many more warm bodies to get the work done. That will happen, but not immediately. There are some things that can be done now, however that will help to some extent. I had posted these ideas earlier in a very long post. I thought I ought to split it up into bite sized chunks. Here is the first installment

Hold hearings on cases without "pulling" exhibits

When case files come into ODAR, they are a mess. There are duplicate copies of medical records. Medical records may have been requested from a single provider on several occasions, meaning that the records from that provider are spread out at several places in the file. Even when all of the records from a single provider are in one place, they may not be in chronological order. Even if they are in chronological order, the order will go forward in one set of records and backwards in another. The files are jumbles. A staff member "pulls" out the relevant medical evidence and places it in some order. The exhibits are marked with numbers. This is extremely helpful for all involved and should never be abandoned permanently. However, staff shortages have made pulling exhibits a bottleneck. Many ALJs would like to hold more hearings but cannot because files have not been "pulled."

Some hearing offices have abandoned "pulling" exhibits as a general matter. The exhibits are "pulled" only if a claim is to be denied. This is inconvenient for all concerned and can lead to confusion and misunderstandings, but there is no doubt that it improves productivity. Social Security seems to have no fixed policy on this. My opinion is that instructing ALJs to hold hearings routinely on unpulled files would improve ODAR productivity by at least 10%. This is a temporary expedient that should be abandoned quickly after the crisis is over. This could probably be implemented in less than three months, although the complaints about it would continue for years after it was over.

Buffalo News Editorial On Backlogs

The Buffalo News has an editorial on Social Security backlogs. The article is only available online to subscribers or to those who pay a fairly ridiculous fee. Here are a couple of excerpts for free:

If you have been disabled and are applying for Social Security Disability benefits, don’t count on a quick resolution of your claim. In the Buffalo and Rochester regions, once a claimant has been denied on an initial application, it may take as long as 22 to 26 months before a SSD or SSI hearing is held. ...

Congress needs to wake up to the fact that the SSD processing delays can have devastating effects upon claimants who, like our clients, dutifully paid into the Social Security system for years and are now desperately in need of benefits. People’s lives are at stake.

It’s time for our elected officials to act. It’s time to remove the hiring freeze. It’s time to gear up the review offices and speed up the hearing process. It’s time to ensure that our citizens are justly protected by the SSD safety net. For justice delayed is justice denied.

SSA Now Has White House Liaison

The current organizational structure of Social Security shows Larry Dye as "White House Liaison." According to the Wayback Machine (and yes, there is such a thing), there was no such position when Jo Anne Barnhart was Commissioner, or for that matter when Larry Massanari was Acting Commissioner. Dye was Chief of Staff for Barnhart.

Why does Social Security need a White House Liaison?

NCSSMA On Staffing

The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel has written Linda McMahon, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner for Operations about staffing problems. The letter is worth reproducing here in full:

Dear Linda,

As you may know, we are in the process of tabulating the results from the 2007 NCSSMA Survey of Management. The resounding theme I am seeing is that staffing on the front lines is the number one issue of field and TSC management staff across the country. Over the past year, feedback has evolved from subtle messages about staffing and service concerns to strong demands from members that NCSSMA must try to do something to address the deterioration of service in the field and TSC's.

We are most concerned about the significant resource losses in field offices since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2006. FO’s have lost over 1,700 CR and SR positions and in this fiscal year alone, there has been a loss of about 700 in these two positions. The Field has 1,270 fewer positions now compared to the beginning of FY 2005, which was before we did special hiring for Part D Medicare. Losses in these critical positions are significantly more than the average losses for the entire Agency. The Field and TSC’s [Teleservice Centers] have lost had nearly two-thirds of the FTE [Full Time Equivalent] losses in the Agency since the beginning of the Fiscal Year while they only represent about 52% of the Agency’s staffing. (Note Area Offices are included in this percent.) Offices across the country are finding it very difficult to provide a full level of service.

We can clearly see this from the survey results and overwhelming feedback coming in from the Survey of Management. The results of this survey will be published soon. Here are three examples of comments that are typical of the feedback we received:

■ “We have lost 20% of our staff over the last several months with little hope of replacing them. A once happy, productive and successful office now has morale sinking to an all time low. Management staff is doing all the clerical work and is taking over more and more production workloads just to keep things moving and try to keep staff morale from hitting rock bottom. Bright, hardworking employees are finding work elsewhere.

As a manager, I find it very frustrating. I can’t hire. I can’t reduce workloads. I can’t even adequately reward staff members for their hard work.

We have management staff trying to answer the general phone lines all day long, which is impossible with all the clerical and production tasks we are trying to cover in addition to management duties.”

■ “It is discouraging to keep being asked to do more with less and embarrassing to see the service you provide erode before your very eyes. Although we manage to keep our head above water, the constant interviewing and long lines of people waiting to be seen is also impacting our staff. Even my most energetic staff members seem to be demoralized and anxious wanting to take care of their workloads and dealing with irate visitors who want to know what’s taking so long to clear their cases.”

■ “We have not been able to replace our losses, resulting in very poor telephone service answering in FO’s. Our reception area is standing room only because callers cannot get through on the telephones.”

Most offices are not doing an adequate job of answering telephone calls, and waiting times are climbing. As we continue to refine and promote our internet services, the need for skilled interviewers to assist the online filers is increasing. This additional task is falling on the already burdened shoulders of our front-line employees. As the recent hearings on disability backlogs graphically illustrated, the Congress has a strongly held interest in public service issues. We would hope that the steady deterioration of field office resources be remedied before we too are subject to such outside scrutiny.

We recognize that the Agency’s budget is very tight this year and that next year’s budget could also be very bleak. We helped advocate for the funds that are available this fiscal year and well understand that the ability to hire new CR’s and SR’s will be limited. However, now is the time to reprioritize within the Social Security Administration - the status quo is not acceptable nor fair to the public we serve. We firmly believe that there needs to be an Agency wide focus on providing more resources and support to critically shorthanded Field Offices and on increasing the number of interviewing positions.

We do believe that we need to slow down the trend of assigning CR’s [Claims Representatives] to non-interviewing positions such as SDW [Special Disability Workload -- too complicated to explain here] cadre. We need a commitment to increase the number of interviewers and slow down the growth of staff components. Although we agree that the Regional Offices play an important role, we note the Regional Offices have grown in staff in the past few years despite the losses we’ve seen in field offices and TSC’s.

Perhaps a special workgroup can be formed soon to come up with a plan on how to best address these losses. We certainly would be willing to provide our assistance in any such workgroup. We do believe that a concerted effort needs to be made immediately to look at this issue. We sincerely want to be part of developing the solutions needed to address the staffing and service issues that we are facing in the field and TSC's.

Sincerely,

/s/

Rick Warsinskey

NCAA Challenge -- Still Time To Join

The Social Security News NCAA Challenge will close at noon on Thursday, when the NCAA basketball tournament begins. There is no prize other than public recognition for your basketball knowledge. Fedblog says that office pools are non-existent in the federal sector, so where else are you going to compare your picking ability with others.

The name of the group is Social Security News and it is on ESPN Tournament Challenge. It is a public group, so anyone can join.

Barnhart Poll

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Hearing Office Processing Times

The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) recently published a report it obtained from Social Security that ranks Social Security hearing offices by average processing times. This report is reproduced above. Click on each page to view it at full size.

Off Topic: Social Security News NCAA Tournament Challenge

For those who are interested, I have set up an NCAA Tournament Challenge group. The name of the group is Social Security News and it is on ESPN Tournament Challenge. It is a public group, so anyone can join.