Cert Denied In Public Citizen Case

The Supreme Court has refused to hear Public Citizen v. United States District Court, a case having to do with the validity of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which contained a number of items affecting the Social Security Administration.

Don't Blame Us!

A letter to the editor published in the New York Times:

Re “Disabled Need Help Now, Not Later” (letters, Dec. 17):

The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance takes great pride in our expeditious review of federal disability claims.

Our work force has the tools and the training to decide initial claims in a timely manner. We review extensive medical documentation, consult with medical professionals and render a decision in less than three months on average.

The backlogs identified by The New York Times in its earlier coverage occur at the appeals stage, which is directly administered by the Social Security Administration.

As a result of our ability to manage our own caseload, our office has taken on and completed approximately 4,500 cases that would otherwise have been handled by the Social Security Administration, to assist in reducing the backlog of cases on appeal.

David A. Hansell

Albany, Dec. 17, 2007

The writer is the commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Fraud In Illinois

From WREX-TV in Rockford, IL:

A Rockford woman pleads guilty to stealing social security benefits.

Joan Jarrett, 61, got about more than $79,000 illegally. Investigators say she applied for supplemental security income benefits in 1990 because she wasn't living with her husband at the time.

Even though they started living together again the next year, Jarrett got the benefits until 2005. Jarrett even admitted to lying to the Social Security Administration about living with her husband.

She has to pay the money back and could get as much as 10 years in prison.

QDD Begins In Missouri

No one is even pretending that "Quick Disability Determinations" (QDD) will solve Social Security's backlogs. It is hard to convince those in the field that there is anything new about QDD, other than the name, but QDD is the only fig leaf at hand. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced that the Social Security Administration has implemented its new quick disability determination (QDD) process in Missouri's disability determination services. Under QDD, a predictive model analyzes specific elements of data within the electronic claims file to identify claims where there is a high potential that the claimant is disabled and where evidence of the person's allegations can be quickly and easily obtained. ... "The length of time many people wait for a disability decision is unacceptable," Commissioner Astrue said. "I am committed to a process that is as fair and speedy as possible. While there is no single magic bullet, with better systems, better business processes and better ways of fast-tracking targeted cases, we can greatly improve the service we provide to the citizens of Missouri."

Really, there is a "magic bullet." It is called "being able to hire enough personnel to get the work done."

Commissioner's Holiday Message

A broadcast e-mail:

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 2:44 PM
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--12/21/07

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: Holiday Message

I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you and your families a wonderful holiday season. I hope that your holidays are filled with happiness and cheer.

I also want to share some important budget news. As you may have heard by now, Congress has filled the SSA stocking more fully this year than it has in a long time. Congress has passed, and we expect the President to sign, an appropriations bill giving the agency $150 million more than the President’s original request. Late in the process we also gained some flexibility we didn't anticipate relating to program integrity work. We will get more information out to you after the new year.

I have just arrived back in Boston, and I'm looking forward to spending time with family for a little while. We have had a good finish to a good year, and I hope that you all have a chance to unwind and relax for a while!

So, as we celebrate this welcome budget news and the holiday season, let me thank you all for the extraordinary work you have accomplished this year. May you and yours have a happy, healthy new year.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

Connected With New York Times Article?

The Social Security Administration has long urged its employees to be sensitive to cases in which claimants threaten suicide. The agency has just reissued instructions on this subject. You have to wonder if this is connected with the recent New York Times article, which included the sad story of a disability claimant who committed suicide.

Oregon Reports In

From the Portland Tribune:

Kevin Kilmer is stuck in limbo.

Kilmer, 46, is a former machinist who suffers from a rare condition known as a Type II Chiari malformation. [I am familiar with this disorder. It is seriously bad news. If Michael Astrue wants to do something to help people with rare diseases who are not being treated fairly by Social Security, this would be a good place to start.] The bones of his skull press down on his spinal cord, causing devastating headaches and other neurological problems including blurred vision, tinnitus, and loss of sensation in his arms and legs. ...

In January 2005, unable to work any longer, Kilmer applied for Social Security disability benefits — and thus stepped into a bureaucratic netherworld that every year swallows hundreds of thousands of disabled Americans.

Three years later, his case still is unresolved, leaving Kilmer broke and frustrated.

Las Vegas Sun Editorial

From the Las Vegas Sun:

The federal government's backlog of Social Security disability appeals is getting worse, and there is little relief in sight. ...

This just doesn't make sense. It's not as if the Bush administration couldn't see this coming. The Baby Boom generation, which encompasses people born from 1946 through 1964, makes up 25 percent of the U.S. population. Members started turning 55 in 2001, so it only stands to reason that as more of them age, the number of disability claims will increase.

This is just not a fiscally responsible way to run a large government agency that has a $9.6 billion budget and receives 2.5 million disability applications a year. More important, these yearslong waits are no way to treat people who, because of age or physical disability or both, no longer can take care of themselves and look to their government for the help it is supposed to provide.