Slashing The Backlog -- In Recons -- In Nevada

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Lisa Worobey likes to work.

Even as a brain condition from childhood continued to wreak a serious physical toll on her body, the 39-year-old Reno resident still managed to work regularly through the years. “I didn’t want to be on disability,” Worobey said. “I wanted to work just like everyone else.”

Everything changed, however, after Worobey fell in her last job and injured her femur. Already having several surgeries on her brain and spine, the latest resulted in several complications, including a staph infection. The pain eventually became so unbearable that Worobey decided to apply for disability. After being denied twice, Worobey was finally approved last December — a year and a half after she first applied. ...

“I just don’t understand why it takes so long,” Worobey said. “I sold my house, so I got a bit of money; but I quickly went through that. ...

The Bureau of Disability Adjudication in Carson City has undergone some key changes since a Reno Gazette-Journal article chronicled the agency’s problems in 2006.

Nationally, the Social Security Administration launched a couple of initiatives to help states speed up the disability application process, said Lowell Kepke, Social Security spokesperson for the San Francisco office.

One is hiring more administrative law judges nationwide to hear appeals. Another is a program called Quick Disability Determination, which was officially implemented in Nevada last October. Quick Disability uses software that screens applications based on key health criteria to speed up identification of severe disability cases.

The biggest change was the lifting of a freeze on reviews in the Carson City bureau of cases under appeal. The freeze was initially ordered as a way to ease workload pressure on overstretched staff and allow them to focus on reviewing new applications, said Kraig Schutte, chief of the Bureau of Disability Adjudication. . But the move led to a backlog of nearly 5,000 cases in the appeal stage — 2,800 of which involved “reconsiderations” or the first level of appeal and 2,149 for cases under continued review.

“We found that we were essentially 13 months behind in processing cases (on appeal), during the backlog,” Schutte said. “It had a major impact.”

The freeze was eliminated in September 2006, plus the bureau got assistance from the Social Security Administration to clear the backlog of appeals, Schutte said. As of last week, the bureau has trimmed its backlog for reconsiderations to 146 cases. The backlog for cases under continued disability review saw a similar significant drop to 152. Social Security also lifted a hiring freeze that was causing vacant positions to accumulate at the bureau. This bumped up staffing from 37 to 45, Schutte said.

Spiking

I received this e-mail from a former benefits authorizer. I thought it would be of general interest, so I am posting it here, with Mr. Herling's permission:

As a Social Security employee who retired after working for the agency for almost 29 years, mainly as a benefit authorizer, I would like to make an observation regarding the processing of disability benefits.

After the agonizingly lengthy procedure involved in approving disability claims (even if they are not denied), the final product, a disability award, must be processed by a benefit authorizer before benefit checks can go out. It is at the point that the Social Security Administration plays a final cruel joke on many successful disability applicants. To wit: the authorization process is delayed, unnecessarily in my opinion, because benefit authorizers, who are the only ones who can perform the benefit authorization function, are frequently forbidden to perform this function for long periods of each work week. Instead, the B.A.'s [Benefit Authorizers] are forced to "spike," i.e., answer phone calls from the public, the majority which deal with SSI eligibility and payments, which have nothing to do with Social Security. In effect, B.A.'s are being forced to act as babysitters instead of being allowed to perform the job for which they and they alone have been professionally trained. I think you will agree that this situation is a grave disservice to both the disability claimants and the B.A.'s who should be authorizing their claims.

I would appreciate it if you would make this administration policy known to your readers and to the general public. Only a public outcry could put pressure on Congress and on the Administration to do away with or at least modify drastically the Administration's pernicious and wasteful "SPIKE" policy.

John Herling
Mineola, NY

My impression is that the BAs do not do such a great job at answering the phone either, since that is not the job they were trained for.

Four Nuggets From The "Plan To Eliminate The Hearing Backlog And Prevent Its Recurrence"

Here is a nugget from the recently released "Plan To Eliminate The Hearing Backlog And Prevent Its Recurrence."

A Steering Committee at the Senior Executive Level of the Social Security Administration was formed to facilitate implementation of the Commissioner’s plan to address the hearing backlog. The first meeting was held on June 7, 2007 with weekly meetings through August and bi-weekly meetings since August. Committee members include:

• Frank A. Cristaudo, Chief Administrative Law Judge (co-chair)
• Mary Glenn-Croft, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Operations (co-chair)
• Jim Winn, Acting Deputy General Counsel, OGC
• Jerry Berson, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, OS
• Diane B. Garro, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, OLCA
• Phil Gambino, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, OCOMM
• Alan Lane, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, OQP
• Milt Beever, Associate Commissioner, OLMER
• Glen Sklar, Associate Commissioner, ODP, ODISP
• Eileen McDaniel, Associate Commissioner for Management, ODAR
• Bill Taylor, Executive Director, OAO, ODAR
• Nancy Griswold, Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge
• Larry Miller, Director, OBFM, OB
• Bill Newton, Senior Advisor, OQP
• Marilyn Hull, Project Director

Because of changes in Executive personnel responsibilities in late June, Ron Raborg, Deputy Chief Quality Officer, OQP, replaced Alan Lane, and in August, Roger McDonnell, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Operations, replaced Mary Glenn-Croft.

And a second nugget:

It was estimated that approximately 20% of the remanded cases [under the informal remand or "re-recon" process] would be reversed by the DDS. By the close of FY 07, 8,714 favorable determinations had been returned by the DDSs and 7,413 cases were returned as “No Decision” by the DDS. This was a 54% reversal rate.

And a third nugget:

Traditionally, management information for the hearing operation has been reported on a monthly basis. While reasons exist for this approach, it may result in delays in case processing as employees process more cases at the end of the month to meet monthly goals. In FY 07, the Chief Judge has been strongly encouraging managers to monitor workload processing data on a weekly basis and ODAR continues to develop workload reports to monitor hearing office performance this way.

And a final nugget:

The Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge, Office of Appellate Operations, and Office of Labor Management and Employee Relations have been meeting regularly to make immediate improvements under current rules and to clarify the complaint process for claimants. The group has completed changes to current notices, posters, associated pamphlets, and the website that outlines how to file an unfair treatment complaint. The group continues to study the process and to consider improvements that will involve regulatory changes. The goal is to make the ALJ complaint process both fair and effective for SSA, the ALJs and the American people. In FY 07, the Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge took a more pro-active stance in pursuing disciplinary actions based on ALJ misconduct.

Biggs Nomination Formally Withdrawn -- Who's Next?

From Dow Jones:

The White House on Wednesday withdrew the formal nomination of Andrew G. Biggs as deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Biggs was temporarily appointed last year despite a key Democrat's objections.

In April, President George W. Bush used a recess appointment to place Biggs in the No. 2 Social Security Administration job on a temporary basis. Bush acted after Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., vowed his panel wouldn't consider Biggs's nomination because of his support for private investment accounts within Social Security.

This would allow the President to nominate someone else for the Deputy Commissioner job, with a term to run until January 2013.

Social Security Debit Card Coming Soon

From Yahoo Finance:

Comerica Bank has been chosen as the card issuer for the federal government's prepaid debit card service being offered to Social Security recipients.

The new system, known as Direct Express, is expected to be rolled out in Texas and several other states in the second quarter of 2008.

Greenville, SC Office Suffers Water Damage

From Yahoo News:

The Greenville [South Carolina] Social Security Office on Pelham Road is temporarily closed due to water damage.

Officials said that the office will be reopened as soon as possible, but they did not estimate how soon the office will reopen.

Correction On Quality Assurance Reviews

I received a helpful, but anonymous, response to my post about the proposed quality assurance reviews of Administrative Law Judge decisions that corrects a misunderstanding I had. I imagine I am not the only one confused by this. I have no way of asking permission to post it, but I see no way it could be traced back, so here it is:

Your comments and observations were interesting and mostly on-target. However, I believe your comment number 7 is predicated on a misinterpretation of the term "Regional Attorney." You base your comment on the assumption that the references to the "Regional Attorney" are, in fact references to the "Regional Chief Counsel" in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC). I believe you are wrong in this interpretation. Regional Attorneys are located in each of the ten Offices of the Regional Chief ALJ, within ODAR, and report to the RCALJ. They may or may not have supervisory responsibilities. Regional Chief Counsels, on the other hand, are the primary OGC executives in each region, and report to the General Counsel in Baltimore. I believe that the Plan's references to Regional Attorneys are references to the ODAR attorneys, not to any attorney (or anyone else) in OGC. To my knowledge ... there have never been any serious discussions about having OGC involved in any substantive manner in the adjudication process. (The closest was the Counsel to Council short-term project several years ago. Even then, OGC had no discretionary involvement in the outcome of any individual claim).

Although your assumptions would arguably be correct if OGC became involved in the hearing process, I do not believe that is the Agency's intent.

Hiring Plans At Social Security

From a Federal Times article about federal agency hiring plans:

But some sorely understaffed and underfunded agencies are planning only modest hiring efforts this year.

The Social Security Administration — which is at its lowest staffing levels in 35 years and which faces a growing backlog of 747,000 disability claims cases — plans to hire 150 administrative law judges and 92 support staff this year.

SSA plans to replace only one of every two state disability determination service employees — who help decide whether people claiming severe disabilities should receive benefits — who leave in 2008.

SSA might hire more people, but Commissioner Michael Astrue hasn’t made any decisions yet, spokesman Mark Lassiter said.