Witness List For Senate Finance Committee Hearing

The Senate Finance Committee has announced the following witness list for its June 21 hearing on "Barriers to Work for Individuals Receiving Social Security Disability Benefits."

Sue Suter, Associate Commissioner for Employment Support Programs, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, MD

Allen Jensen, Senior Research Staff Scientist, Center for Health Services Research and Policy, The George Washington University, Washington, DC

Dr. David C. Stapleton, Director, Cornell Center for Policy Research, Washington, DC

Jim Brown, SSDI Beneficiary, Independent Advocate, Billings, MT

Senate Appropriations Committee Schedules Markup Session

The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled the full committee markup of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill for Thursday, June 21 at 2:00. This bill includes funding for Social Security's administrative budget.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette On Hearing Backlogs

Eventually, there will be a story like this in every newspaper in America. Some excerpts from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

In nearly 30 years, Thomas Williams has worked in a hospital, an ice cream factory and a group home. With each paycheck, he’s paid into a government system that promises to help workers if they get too sick to hold a job.

A degenerative back condition has put him in a wheelchair, unable to do the jobs he’s qualified for. But instead of paying his bills with money from monthly disability checks, Williams, 47, relies on food stamps, some help from the township trustee, a subsidized apartment and whatever his sister and sons can chip in.

Since the summer of 2005, Williams has been waiting for the government to agree with his doctors’ assessment. His case hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing. ...

Thousands of Hoosiers are scraping the bottom of their savings accounts, relying on food banks and bunking with relatives while they wait to find out whether their Social Security disability claims are approved under the safety net Congress created decades ago for physically injured or mentally disabled Americans who can’t work. ...

“It puts people under a tremendous stress and strain,” said Thomas Knight, a Fort Wayne attorney who has seen the waiting period stretch dramatically since he started handling Social Security disability cases six years ago.

San Pedro Field Office Closing

The Social Security Administration is planning to close its office in San Pedro, CA, forcing residents of that city to drive to Long Beach or Torrance to do their business with Social Security, according to the Daily Breeze. What a name for a paper!

The local Congresswoman, Jane Harman, is very unhappy. A Los Angeles Daily News blog quotes her as saying:

After months of effort by residents and elected officials, including me, to keep the San Pedro office open, the offer of a part-time contact office is insulting. Apparently, SSA has not been watching the meltdown of our passport system. Putting too few resources on a big issue creates a bigger problem.

Computerworld Honors For eDIB

Computerworld has added eDIB, the paperless system that the Social Security Administration is now implementing, to the list of those it honors for achievement.

It appears to me that Social Security must have exaggerated the achievements of eDIB to the point of complete dishonesty to get this award. Fully operational? Saving money? Most effective system of its type? Achieved its goal? The "grapevine" in Social Security fully supports eDIB?

Some excerpts from Computerworld:

In 2006, SSA completed the rollout of an $800 million all-digital system known as eDib to process disability claims at nearly 1,500 locations nationwide. eDib will save more than $1.3 billion when compared with the cost of creating, mailing and storing paper folders. The eDib system allows applicants to file claims over the Internet directly or with the help of SSA staff at one of its offices. ...

For SSA employees, eDib has:

• Significantly reduced the amount of time spent searching for folders and associating folder documentation
• Eliminated the need to reconstruct lost folders
• Eliminated the need to prepare a paper folder for routing to the DDS
• Eliminated the need to store a paper-based claims folder
• Provided immediate access to claim files for appeals or post-entitlement processing
• Reduced the amount of time lost on misrouted cases
• Allowed for the propagation of data to various systems ...

Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of its kind? Most effective

Success

Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals? Achieved

Is it fully operational? Yes

How many people benefit from it? 2M/year ...

How quickly has your targeted audience of users embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly do you predict they will?
... But once they adapted, “selling” the value of eDib to other employees was easier than expected as our field office employees have an incredibly accurate and rapid “grapevine.”

An Image From 1939

Social Security Stats By Congressional District

Social Security's Office of Policy has released a set of Social Security statistics by Congressional district.

Social Security Press Release On Medicare Part D

This has to be a Social Security Administration press release, but it does not show up on Social Security's webpage that is supposed to list press releases.

Associated Press - June 17, 2007 2:13 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Social Security Administration and Medicare are using this Father's Day to spread the word about its prescription drug plan for low income seniors.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue (AS'-troo) is encouraging anyone who knows a senior or someone who is eligible for Social Security and fits the income levels to apply. Astrue says they've made the application as simple as possible.

You can't make more than $15,000 to qualify as an individual for the plan or 20,000 as a married couple living together. There are asset limitations as well.

Astrue says if your dad is a Donald Trump or Bill Gates -- don't call, but if they are close to the income levels, check it out.

An application is available on the Social Security website.