Big LTD Case To Be Heard By Supreme Court Today

The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in Met Life v. Glenn, a big case involving Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits under company pension plans. The Associated Press is reporting on the case which presents the issue of whether there is an impermissible conflict of interest in an insurance company deciding upon appeals of denials of LTD claims when the insurance company has to pay the benefits out of pocket. If the disabled person wins, LTD will be changed forever, probably dramatically.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Solicitor General has filed a brief in favor of the disabled woman and against the insurance company.

ABC Is Interested In Tomorrow's Hearing

From Tom Shine's blog, Politics As Usual, at ABC (the capitalization is Shine's and the bolding is mine):

She lived in Key West, Florida. One day her husband shot her 5 times in the liver and abdomen and then killed himself. In AUGUST 2004 she applied for social security disability benefits. Her disabilities were caused by the 5 wounds and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. After a delay, her claim was denied. In APRIL 2006, she requested a hearing. It took nearly two years, but in EARLY MARCH of 2008, she got her hearing. In LATE MARCH of 2008 SHE DIED. AFTER hear death social security ruled in her favor.

He lived in Charlotte, North Carolina and worked for 15 years as a pipe insulator. He usually also worked a second job. At age 52 he was suffering from congestive heart failure, chronic atrial fibrillation, pneumonia, obesity and peripheral artery disease. He applied for social security disability benefits in MARCH of 2006. He was denied. In NOVEMBER of 2006 he requested a hearing. He DIED on AUGUST 21, 2007. FOUR MONTHS LATER, on DECEMBER 27, 2007, social security RULED IN HIS FAVOR WITHOUT A HEARING.

Tomorrow, a group called the consortium for citizens with disabilities will testify before a house ways and means committee. They have a lot of stories to tell.

According to committee staffers, currently more than 1.3 MILLION Americans are waiting for a decision on their application for disability benefits. For those who APPEAL the wait for a decision can be as long as TWO to FOUR YEARS.

Severely under funded and understaffed, the Social Security Disability program has not been a priority for the President or most members of Congress.

Syracuse TV Station On Backlogs

From WSYR in Syracuse, NY:

If you get so sick or injured that you can’t work anymore, Social Security disability kicks in. But it may take a few months for benefits to go into effect.

Currently, it takes nearly three months just to process disability applications. If they go to hearing, it could take up to a year and a half.

The report deals with the issues associated with the five month waiting period for Disability Insurance Benefits, using the example of a man with pancreatic cancer who may not live that long.

I Hope This Doesn't Involve Many Employees

A notice posted by the Social Security Administration seeking a contractor to do medical testing of employees for asbestos contamination:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a known requirement for a contractor to provide complete occupational medical testing services for SSA employees exposed to asbestos concentrations. The contractor shall arrange to provide examinations from a self-contained MOBILE UNIT ON-SITE at the SSA facility located at 6401 Security Boulevard, Woodlawn, MD 21235 when at least 10 employees are to be examined. If fewer than 10 employees are to be examined the employee(s) may visit the contractor’s site upon a one-week notification from SSA.

Is HALLEX Defunct?

Social Security has a manual for its Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), called HALLEX. Almost two years ago, ODAR basically stopped updating HALLEX, at least so far as one can tell by looking at it online. Clearly, HALLEX is out of date now -- if the publicly available version of HALLEX can be trusted.

What is the explanation? Is HALLEX defunct? Is it still valid, but just not up to date because of lack of manpower at ODAR? Has it been updated, but ODAR is just keeping the updates confidential? Most of Social Security's Emergency Messages are being kept from the public. The only reason that I can imagine for trying to keep them secret is a general increase in pointless federal government secrecy during the Bush Administration. I hope that the answer is not "Well, the updates are really boring and we thought you wouldn't be interested, so we just didn't bother to post them online." You might be amazed at how interested I and other attorneys can be in these boring things, especially when it looks like someone is trying to keep them secret.

Master And Sub Accounts -- And Allsup

From today's Federal Register:

We are issuing this notice to obtain public input regarding an anticipated change to an Agency payment procedure that permits benefit payments to be deposited into a third-party's ``master'' account when the third party maintains separate ``sub'' accounts for individual beneficiaries. We anticipate changing our current procedure in light of concerns about how high-interest lenders are using this master/sub account procedure. We are also seeking comments on the practice that some beneficiaries follow of preauthorizing their banks to transfer their benefits to lenders immediately after the benefits are deposited into their accounts.

I think this has also been used by Long Term Disability (LTD) insurers to collect their offset against Social Security disability benefits. Allsup, which represents many LTD recipients before Social Security at the behest of their LTD insurers, advertises its "Overpayment Recovery Service", through which Allsup "Withdraw[s] overpayment funds directly from claimant’s bank account using our patented electronic process."

This my explain why attorneys who represent Social Security claimants, such as myself, exhibit some disdain for Allsup.

Witness List For Ways And Means Committee Hearing

The House Ways and Means Committee has released the following tentative witness list for its full committee hearing on Wednesday on Social Security's backlogs:

Panel:
	Tentative The Honorable Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner, Social Security Administration
	Panel:
	Sylvester J. Schieber, Chairman, Social Security Advisory Board
	Marty Ford, Co-Chair, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Social Security Task Force
	Witold Skwierczynski, President of the American Federation of Government Employees National Council of Social Security Field Operations Locals, Baltimore, Maryland
	Mara Mayor, Member, AARP Board of Directors, Bethesda, Maryland
	The Honorable Frederick Waitsman, Administrative Law Judge, Social Security Administration, and Vice Chair, Social Security Section of the Federal Bar Association, Atlanta, Georgia

The hearing is at 10:00 and should be available in streaming video. I would guess that there is a good chance that C-SPAN will be broadcasting the hearing, but we will have to wait to see on that one. I have to keep emphasizing that this is a full committee hearing, which makes it a much bigger deal than a Social Security Subcommittee hearing, not that a Subcommittee hearing is unimportant.

Commendation For Field Office Operations Supervisor

From the Tacoma News Tribune:

Lisa Black of Bonney Lake said she learned all she needed to know about handling handcuffs from watching “COPS” on TV.

That knowledge came in handy last month at the South Seattle Social Security Administration office where she works. A knife-wielding man tried to enter the office minutes before it opened and stabbed the office guard.

Black’s actions earned her a commendation this month from Bonney Lake Mayor Neil Johnson for her “bravery and humanitarian spirit in the face of life-threatening danger.” The certificate was presented at a City Council meeting.

Black, 45, is the operations supervisor for the office and a 13-year SSA employee. She said the real heroes were office guard John Robinson, 45, of Tacoma and a parking attendant from the building.

The morning of March 19, Black said, the sound of the office alarm going off sent her running toward the front door shortly before 9 a.m. There she found Robinson lying on top of two other men.

Blood covered his face and head where he had been stabbed. He couldn’t see because of the blood in his eyes.

Beneath Robinson was the parking attendant who just happened to be passing by when the fight erupted in the small hallway leading to the door. The attendant saw the man with the knife fighting with the guard. He and Robinson brought the assailant to the floor.

“I was kind of holding John’s hand, and the guy started struggling,” Black said. “He said, ‘Get off me!’ He started moving around.

He was a big guy, at least 250 pounds and over 6 feet tall, she said.<

The parking attendant told her he may not be able to hold the assailant’s wrists much longer.

Black reacted. She knew Robinson had handcuffs on a clip on his utility belt, so she grabbed them.

“I had watched ‘COPS’,” she said. “I knew how to open them.

“I just acted. I didn’t have a thought pattern. I knew I had to do everything necessary so he wouldn’t get up,” she said.

Black had to pull his one hand closer and finally secured the handcuffs on him. The man gave up struggling and the police arrived.

Black, who is the mother of two daughters, ages 15 and 26, said the blood on her clothes and hands was easily washed away. Robinson, on the other hand, was hurt and is still home recuperating. He is employed by Federal Protective Services, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Asked why she jumped into the fray instead of standing back like others in the hallway, Black said: “This is my office. He (Robinson) is my friend. I couldn’t just watch.”

Upset and loud people are a part of her federal office, she said, but one attack like that in a career is enough.

“I’m hoping I never have to do that again.”