Compassionate Allowances Public Hearing

From today's Federal Register:

SUMMARY: We are considering ways to quickly identify diseases and other serious medical conditions that obviously meet the definition of disability under the Social Security Act (the Act) and can be identified with minimal objective medical information. At present, we are calling this method '‘Compassionate Allowances.’’ We plan to hold four public hearings over the next year. The purpose of this first hearing is to obtain your views about the advisability and possible methods of identifying and implementing compassionate allowances for children and adults with rare diseases. We will address other kinds of medical conditions in later hearings.

DATES: Dates and location: We must receive written comments by December 21, 2007. Comments made at the hearings will be considered in preparation of a final rule. The first hearing will be held on December 4 and December 5, 2007, between 8:45 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), in Washington, DC. The hearings will be held at 500 E Street, SW., Washington, DC 20436, in the main hearing room of the International Trade Commission. Space limitations and time constraints require hearing attendance to be by invitation only. However, you may listen to the proceedings by calling 1–888–456–0278, at 9 a.m., EST, the mornings of December 4 and 5. If you plan to listen in, please send an e-mail to Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov by November 21, 2007.

Let me take a guess as to the thinking behind this:

We really want to push "compassionate allowance" since it sounds really nice. It makes it sound like we are doing something, when we really cannot do anything of consequence due to lack of budget. The problem is that we have no idea what "compassionate allowance" means, much less how it is different from what we already do, so we will hold "hearings", which will allow us to publicize "compassionate allowance", while actually doing nothing. Since allowing real people to testify and ask questions and even demonstrate could be inconvenient, we will keep these "hearings" carefully controlled.

This sounds like something cooked up at the White House. Why would an independent Social Security Administration be part of this nonsense?

The notice indicates that Diane Braunstein is now the Director of the Office of Compassionate Allowances and Listings Improvement of the Office of Disability Programs, Office of Disability and Income Security Programs at Social Security. I have found an old document showing that Braunstein was Legislative Affairs Advisor in the Office of Policy Development at Social Security in 1988. She was working for the Alzheimer's Association at one time. She was working for the National Governors Association in 2003. Braunstein appears not to be a career employee at Social Security.

Web Service Beta Test

From today's Federal Register:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is pleased to announce that, in 2008; the agency will develop and implement a Beta test of a web service which will allow the submission of Initial-level claims, including Disability applications and Adult Disability Reports, from companies who assist the public with filing for benefits. In 2008, SSA plans to develop the web service to initially collect data on the Internet Social Security Benefit Application and Disability Report. Note that when a third party submits an application, SSA must contact the claimant before it is considered valid. In the initial phase, organizations will be able to submit claims data in bulk and receive a confirmation of receipt of the submitted data. In subsequent phases, the systems interface will also include the ability for organizations to check on the status of previously submitted claims information.

SSA would like to extend an invitation to companies who assist individuals with their Social Security benefit applications, to participate in this web service claims data exchange Beta test. The Beta test is structured to use the ``consolidator'' model, where the participating company serves as a conduit to receive claims data from their client base and electronically transfer the data to SSA. After the initial disability claims data collection effort in 2008 is evaluated, SSA will add functional capabilities in future years to collect data on electronic appeal forms and integrated claims applications. This multi-year initiative will provide a comprehensive systems interface for companies to send claims data (including Title II Retirement and Spouse application data, disability data, and medical evidence) to SSA on behalf of their clients. The envisioned long-range solution beyond 2008 is a web service that will facilitate the collection of data through the entire life-cycle of Internet applications, including Title II and Title XVI initial claims and appeals.

Verification Now Required For Comments

Because this blog has been hit lately with dozens of roboposts, I have had to implement word verification for commenting. It is a small extra step to prevent what amounts to spam.

Federal Register Alert

A notice about an item to appear in the Federal Register tomorrow:

PROPOSED RULES

Social security benefits and supplemental security income:

Federal old age, survivors, and disability insurance, and aged, blind, and disabled--

Compassionate allowances for rare diseases; hearing, E7-21828

I think this is only about a public hearing, rather than an actual proposed rule. Social Security rarely holds public hearings about proposed rules, but they can. Michael Astrue may be familiar with this sort of public hearing process from his prior experience with the Food and Drug Administration.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

25 years ago today, 1982: The Social Security system had to borrow $1 billion recently to pay November benefits, but its top administrator says mismanagement and a "rambling wreck" of a computer are more of a threat to the retirement system's immediate future than running out of money. Social Security officials consider it a monthly miracle that they get retirement and disability checks out on time. They also admit to at least $1 billion a year in overpayments.

Appropriations Override Possible?

From Robert Novak:

Democrats are plotting a rapid override of three expected vetoes of spending bills by George W. Bush, who did not veto a single bill until his sixth year as president. ...

The third attempted override would involve a contemplated merger of Defense appropriations with spending for Labor and Health and Human Services [which includes Social Security]. That package would contain so many pet earmarks for individual lawmakers that it would be difficult to sustain a veto.

Misleading Advice

From the syndicated column of Janet Kidd Stewart appearing in the Baltimore Sun:

I retired a few years ago from the military after 20 years. Does the windfall elimination provision reduce my future Social Security benefits?

A number of factors could throw you under the provision, including how long and how much you paid into Social Security from your non-military employment over the years.

The answer to the question goes on quite a bit longer, but it remains confused and confusing.

The answer should have been simple. The person asking the question might be affected by the windfall elimination provision, but military service would have nothing to do with it, except to the very peripheral extent that military service was considered in determining some governmental pension based upon work not covered by Social Security. This foolish column will convince many people that the windfall elimination provision will prevent them from receiving Social Security benefits because of military retirement pay or VA benefits and that is not true.

Working Under A CR

From David Ignatius via the Denver Post:

The talk among some of my government buddies this week was an obscure term of federal budgeting known as a "continuing resolution." This is what Congress passes when it hasn't gotten its act together to pass a real appropriations bill before the start of a new fiscal year. The "CR," as it's known, allows agencies to continue operating at the same spending level as the previous year. ...

We are now a month into fiscal 2008 without Congress having approved a single appropriations bill. That means that every federal agency is operating on a "CR" basis, with that funding due to expire Nov. 16. ...

Late appropriations have become a chronic problem, whichever party is in control of Congress. According to Philip Joyce, a budget expert who teaches at George Washington University, Congress has managed to pass all its appropriations bills on time in only three years since 1977. ...

[Rop] Meyers [a political scientist] summarized the inefficiencies that result from having to run an agency without knowing your budget. "When regular appropriations are delayed, uncertainty about final appropriations leads many managers to hoard funds; in some cases, hiring and purchasing stops.

These effects are so unnecessarily counterproductive, it is surprising (the comic strip) 'Dilbert' has not devoted a month to this topic." Joyce argues that government contractors jack up their prices to compensate for the risk and uncertainty. And he notes the added cost for federal agencies who have to plan for the possibility that a new CR won't be approved and that they may have to shut down. "That's what economists would call a dead-weight loss," says Joyce.

"It's a lousy way to do business," says Leon Panetta, who grappled with these issues as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration.

"You're almost guaranteeing that there will be incompetence, because the agencies don't have the resources to do the job."