I Don't Think I Had Heard This Before

Near the end of a mundane article in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette about a Social Security public affairs specialist is a number I find surprising. The public affairs specialist is quoted as saying that 34% of those filing for Social Security retirement benefits now do so online.

An Example Of The AP's Capture By The Right Wing

From the Associated Press:

As Congress agonizes over health care, an even more daunting and dangerous challenge is bearing down: how to shore up Social Security to keep it from burying the nation ever deeper in debt.

What to do about mushrooming government payments as millions of baby boomers retire? How about a giant federal Ponzi scheme? That might work for a while.

But wait. That's pretty much the current system. ...

Although calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme — think of the huge frauds that sent billionaires Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford to prison — may be a bit of a stretch, there is one clear similarity.

As in a Ponzi scheme, the concept works fine at first. So long as there are more new "investors" pumping money into the system to pay off the earlier ones, everyone is happy. But at some point not enough new money is coming in and the scheme collapses.

Social Security In Middle Of Electronic Medical Records Shootout

From Nextgov.com:

Certification requirements for $24 million in Recovery Act contracts aimed at automating the Social Security Administration's medical disability program could slow technological innovation, according to Microsoft officials and health information technology specialists.

A solicitation for proposals that the agency issued on Friday -- intended to cut the time it has to wait for medical records to determine disability status -- is open only to providers whose technologies are certified or plan to be certified in 2010, Social Security officials said.

Currently, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology "is the only recognized certification program; however, other programs are planned for the near future," SSA spokesman Mark Lassiter said.

Critics of the nonprofit CCHIT contend its leaders are closely aligned with legacy IT vendors who helped found the organization in 2004. They argue the group's certification program focuses on old-fashioned two-way document exchange rather than also embracing the so-called continuity of care record (CCR) standard. The CCR aggregates data from multiple sources, such as records of past doctor visits, prior lab results and hospital administrative documents.

Under the Recovery Act, a new health IT standards committee must deliver recommendations on standards and certification criteria to David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT.

Aneesh Chopra, the Obama administration's chief technology officer, who sits on the standards committee, said, "I would certainly acknowledge that today's marketplace for exchange is likely a balance between those who exchange between CCR and those who exchange" the format endorsed by CCHIT

Attorney Malpractice Alleged In Social Security Case

From the Madison-St. Clair Record:

A woman is blaming her former lawyer for the dismissal of her social security disability claim.

Marylynn Dixon filed a complaint Aug. 3 in Madison County Circuit Court against Evan J. Beatty.

Dixon claims she hired Beatty on July 28, 2003, to represent her in a social security disability claim.

But the claim was dismissed for want of prosecution, and now Dixon says she has lost her opportunity to redeem any social security disability benefits.

She blames Beatty for failing to take any action after the claim was filed, for failing to take action after the claim was dismissed and for failing to inform her of the claim's dismissal.

Dixon is seeking a judgment of more than $50,000, plus costs and other relief the court deems just.

Lance R. Mallon of Mallon Law Firm in Wood River will be representing her.

Summers On Social Security "Reform"

From Edmund Andrews' The Caucus blog at the New York Times:

Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, told a conference of economists in Washington on Tuesday that President Obama would probably start addressing the needs of Social Security before the end of his term. ...

Mr. Summers seemed intent on signaling that Mr. Obama’s idea of “reform” would be to strengthen the program rather rather than to partly privatize it.

I have this feeling that before it is over the Obama health care plan will come to include some "fix" for Social Security. President Obama keeps promising that his health care plan will not cost the Treasury any money yet so far his administration has not offered a plan for offsetting the costs of the health care plan. Social Security "reform" offers a means of offsetting these costs. Administration officials keep talking Social Security "reform." I am probably adding 2 + 2 and getting not 4 or even 5, but 13. We shall see.

Settlement In Fugitive Felon Class Action

From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration has agreed to pay more than $500 million in back benefits to more than 80,000 recipients whose benefits were unfairly denied after they were flagged by a federal computer program designed to catch serious criminals, officials said Tuesday.

According to a preliminary agreement, approved Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, Calif., the Social Security Administration will pay recipients who have been denied benefits since Jan. 1, 2007. In addition, more than 120,000 recipients who were denied benefits before 2007 are eligible to apply for reinstatement....

"It's changing a policy which was really devastating for some of the most vulnerable people in the country," said Gerald McIntyre, an attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs.

The searches captured dozens of criminals, including some wanted for homicide. But they also ensnared countless elderly and disabled people accused of relatively minor offenses such as shoplifting or writing bad checks. In some cases, the victims simply shared a name and a birth date with an offender. Often it was difficult for these citizens to appeal their cases....

In the last few years, at least eight district court judges across the country have ruled in favor of victims in individual cases, saying that cutting off benefits based solely on the database search was illegal.

AALJ Loses Case Against OPM

The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), which represents most of Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and several attorneys in private practice filed suit against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over the announcement of a new register for ALJs. The lawsuit raised a number of issues, mostly having to do with allegations that attorneys already working for Social Security were given an advantage by the way in which OPM created the new register and the way in which OPM announced the new register.

The AALJ and the attorneys have lost on all counts. Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment to OPM yesterday.

Update: As a commenter correctly points out, summary judgment was granted against AALJ on only one of four causes of action. The rest of the case goes forward.

Some Numbers For The Appeals Council

The Social Security Forum, a publication of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) contains the report reproduced below that NOSSCR obtained from Social Security on Appeals Council operations. Click on it to see it full size.