NCSSMA Meets With DCO And Commissioner

The Annual Meeting of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, included some high level meetings. Here are some excerpts from the minutes of a meeting with Linda McMahon, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner, Operations (DCO) in late October:

Although there were very high hopes that we would get $50 million above the President’s budget, Linda believes we will be extremely lucky to get the President’s budget, and we could be in a yearlong Continuing Resolution (CR). [It sounds like she had trouble believing that Barack Obama would be elected President. Notice below that Commissioner Astrue was quite a bit more optimistic.] Any new President will walk into a budget deficit, but the Agency will continue to make its case. Overtime has already been allocated for the first quarter of this fiscal year, split evenly between FOs [Field Offices] and the PCs [Program Centers].

Linda reiterated that during the CR, Operations would only be allowed to hire 1 individual for every 3 losses. They are waiting until December to see where losses occur. The first priority is the 800 number. There will be limited field hires for critical situations. We were able to do some advance hiring for 2009 in 2008.

The Commissioner ... is interested in providing resources to ODAR [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review] who in the past received less attention in terms of hiring, systems, etc. Congress is focused on the challenges faced by ODAR and is sensitive to decreasing the backlogs. If the problems ODAR faces are not fixed, then credibility for the entire Agency is lost. Another challenge is a shifting of workloads as hearings are moved from ODAR to Operations to effectuate them.

Commissioner Astrue also met with the group. Here are some excerpts from that meeting:

In FY 2008, due to attrition and experienced ALJs being used to train the new judges, the Agency actually had about 46 fewer Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). The best ALJs were taken offline to help not only with training the new ALJs but also with the hiring process. ...

Despite all the distractions of hiring and training, we were able to improve productivity because of the commitment of employees. We have locked ourselves into ODAR facility decisions that were more suitable years ago. There are parts of the country that have lighter workloads and parts that are heavier. In particular, in the Atlanta and Chicago regions, the number of facilities is less than adequate.

Under the Continuing Resolution, there is a 1 for 3 replacement hiring rate in the field offices, and 1 for 2 in the DDSs because turnover rates are higher and salaries are lower. The replacement hiring rate in ODAR will be 1 for 1. The new Agency Strategic Plan sets some extremely tough goals for them. ODAR gets the lion’s share of the credit for reducing disability workloads. ...

He feels there is a reasonable chance of exceeding the President’s budget in FY 2009. In the past when Congress has not fully funded the Agency, performance has deteriorated. ...

The Commissioner indicated it took him 11 months to realize there was no focal point to improve notices, to ensure they were up to date, and to prevent them from adding to the workload burdens. He looked at some ODAR notices which were terrible, so he personally made recommendations for rewriting these.

Newspaper Article Helps Another Claimant

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that David Hintz, whose case was featured in a story in August on Social Security backlogs, has been approved for Social Security disability benefits. He had a hearing scheduled within a month after the article in the paper.

Hearing On Compassionate Allowances For Brain Damage

Commissioner Astrue held a public hearing today on his compassionate allowance scheme. This hearing concerned traumatic brain injuries and strokes and featured speakers from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

Traditionally, Social Security has been anything but compassionate or quick in making disability determinations in brain damage cases. Social Security's standard practice is to delay decisions in these cases for months and months in hope of improvement and then to be oblivious to anything other than the most obvious effects of brain damage. Frontal lobe damage, which has its effects primarily upon personality, is completely ignored in most cases. State of the art neuropsychological testing is treated as unimportant.

Peter Orszag To Head OMB

Alexis Simendinger at the National Journal's Lost in Transition Blog is reporting that President-elect Obama has chosen Peter Orszag to be his Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB has considerable power over the Social Security Administration, and not just through its power over the budget. No regulations get published the Federal Register without OMB approval. Orszag was once an economic adviser in the Clinton White House and has more recently been the director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Orszag co-authored a book calling for raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits, increasing the Social Security wagebase and reducing Social Security benefits for high wage earners.

Federal Court Vacancies

There are 12 vacancies on the Courts of Appeals and 25 at the District Court level. There are four vacancies on the 15 member Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals alone. One of the vacancies on the Fourth Circuit dates back to 1994! There will be many more vacancies over the next four years. Politics aside, the federal courts need more judges right now.

Barack Obama's appointments to the federal bench will have a significant impact, with Social Security being one of the ways they will have an impact. Their impact may be particularly important when it comes to class actions.

Something Fishy About These Numbers

Click on each of the thumbnails to see a November 5, 2008 report that the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) obtained from the Social Security Administration on backlogs of claimants awaiting hearings on their Social Security disability claims at each of the hearing offices, each of Social Security's regions and nationally.

Compare the state of the national backlog over time:

• January 25, 2007 -- 508 days
• May 25, 2007 -- 523 days
• July 28, 2007 -- 528 days
• August 31, 2007 -- 523 days
• November 30, 2007 -- 500 days
• February 29, 2008 -- 511 days
• May 30, 2008 -- 523 days
• June 27, 2008 -- 529 days
• July 31, 2008 -- 530 days
  
• September 3, 2008 -- 532 days
• November 5, 2008 -- 476
  

Does this improvement seem too good to be true? How could there be a 56 day reduction over the course of just 63 days? Is it possible that there has been some fiddling with the method by which these numbers are generated? Just looking at the numbers for the office I am most familiar with, Raleigh, I see a reduction in processing time from 509 days to 497 days yet there has been no surge in productivity locally that I have noticed. If anything, my impression is that things continue to slowly get worse here. I hope this report is true, but this needs an explanation.

Integrated Disability Process

Take a look at this letter from the National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of personnel who work at state Disability Determination Services (DDS) agencies and make initial and reconsideration determinations on disability claims. The letter was sent to Ruby Burrell at Social Security central offices. It concerns a proposal called the "Integrated Disability Process." I do not think that I have heard of this "Integrated Disability Process" previously. This may be a significant plan, but it is hard to tell exactly what is in the works, since we can only read a response to the plan, rather than the plan itself. It is also hard to tell how far along they are on this.

Here are a few excerpts to give you an idea of what may be afoot -- and note that it gets more interesting as you go along:

We advise that caution be used when placing weight on the TPs [Treating Physicians] MSS [Medical Source Statements], as these can sometimes be overly restrictive and in some instances fraudulent. Increased program costs will be the result of incorrect decisions driven by these types of MSSs. Some States have commented that, in many cases, TP MSSs appear to be exaggerated because many TPs want their claimant’s to receive benefits or they do not want their patients to believe that it was the TPs report that kept them from receiving benefits. ...

We support a standardized form for the MSS. This form should include in its format adequate space for individual comments/input as well as a statement that the source himself feels that the MSS he is providing is consistent with his medical findings. ...

The requirement of obtaining a MSS at the reconsideration level seems to be based solely on the ALJs’ ‘discomfort’ in making a decision without a MSS in file. This is based not on fact but rather a belief amongst ALJs that having an MSS makes their decision legally defensible. This change will inevitably result in an increase in processing time, as fruitless efforts to obtain an MSS from uncooperative providers are pursued. ...

Slide #25-27: there may be a benefit in rewriting SSR 96-2p and eliminating the ‘controlling weight’ provision. There is no similar concept in other governmental or private agencies. Removing the concept of a controlling opinion would allow for more equity in the consideration of other opinions. ...

There is some support for the concept of DDSs conducting selected face-to-face interviews by highly trained DDS staff before the case goes to ODAR. This could provide some cost benefit savings for many cases involved in the more costly appeals process at the ODAR level. We would welcome additional discussion on this proposal.

By the way, NADE, what a way to feed into the stereotypes that others have about DDS personnel! Really, I did not think you would be that concerned about a few more claimants being approved.

NADE Newsletter

The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of the personnel who make initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has issued its Fall 2008 newsletter, complete with a summary of a speech that Commissioner Astrue made at a NADE Conference.