Social Security Bulletin Released

The Social Security Administration has released another issue of the Social Security Bulletin, its scholarly periodical.

The Human Cost Of Backlogs

From an Op Ed piece by Fran Quigley in the Indianapolis Star (emphasis added):

Do you know which American minority group experiences poverty at the greatest rate? Hint: It is not an ethnic minority.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that nearly two-thirds of working-age adults stuck in long-term poverty have one or more disabilities. ...

From my own work at Indiana Legal Services, I can rattle off grim examples of clients living in tormenting physical and psychological pain because they cannot afford to buy medicine their physicians have prescribed for them. Others endure years of destitute poverty waiting for a disability hearing to be scheduled in the shamefully backlogged Social Security Administration appeal system.

They Call It "Conflicting Goals" -- I Call It Bureaucracy At Its Worst

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) on Aged Claims At The Hearing Level (emphasis added):

In our interviews, one Regional Chief ALJ [Administrative Law Judge] stated that conflicting timeliness goals in the past contributed to hearing offices ignoring the oldest claims. For instance, during FY [Fiscal Year] 2002, ODAR [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review] set timeliness goals for percent of claims processed in 180 days and 270 days. This observation is consistent with comments made during earlier audits. In 2003, during audit work on best practices at hearing offices, an OCALJ [Office of Chief ALJ] official noted that the hearing offices were facing competing goals on dispositions and timeliness. Since aged claims could take more time to process, they would be put aside to allow an office to process more claims and meet shorter timeliness goals. This official questioned the logic of having goals that ran counter to the “oldest claims first” approach. Our review of Agency reports found examples of this focus on shorter-term goals, such as a FY 2002 annual report stating, “Of the more than 532,000 claims processed, we decided nearly 18 percent within 180 days of the request for hearing, slightly below our 20 percent goal.”

New Malignant Neoplastic Disease Listings

Social Security has published new final listings for malignant neoplastic diseases, which are known to most people as cancer. There are only very minor changes from the current listings.

This Will Be A Big Contract

From a notice posted by Social Security:

... [T]he Social Security Administration is publishing this pre-solicitation synopsis notifying interested parties of its intent to release an RFP for the development of a new common Disability Case Processing System (DCPS). ...

The new common DCPS will support SSA's disability workload which consumes over half of SSA's operational work years and is the most complex component of its programs. ...

There are 54 state and federal disability determination case processing sites located throughout the United States and its territories. The system environments consist of locally administered and maintained legacy software and associated hardware. These systems are primarily derivatives of five core systems, which have been built over time by various organizations, and have been significantly customized to meet local management needs.

The purpose of the solicitation will be to replace the five disability determination case processing systems into a single system. The proposed new Disability Case Processing System will be implemented using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles and methods, and will incorporate services, which will be available for use Enterprise wide. ...

SSA anticipates an award of an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Labor Hour type contract. The period of performance shall be for one base year and five-one year options. Work under this proposed contract will be performed through the issuance of firm fixed price or labor hour type task orders, with fixed hourly rates based on the labor categories in the contract.

New Hearing Notices

From Social Security Update, a publication of the Social Security Administration:

Commissioner Astrue is committed to improving the clarity, quality, and readability of all correspondence from Social Security. To that end, Social Security recently began using a new, more user-friendly Notice of Hearing, aimed at helping claimants better prepare for their hearings before an administrative law judge.

There are several improvements in the new notice. First, it tells claimants at the beginning that they must bring valid picture identification because of security requirements in government facilities. This is important because claimants without required identification would have to reschedule their hearings for a later date causing an unnecessary delay.

The notice’s new language makes it easier to understand the legal information by eliminating provisions that can be complicated and confusing. And the new notice reflects changes in the law, including specific issues related to a claimant’s appeal. These items are now presented in order of importance.

For more information about disability hearings and appeals, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/appeals.

SSA Far Along On IPv6

From Government Executive.com:

Think IPv6 is so 2008? Think again. All agencies met the Office of Management and Budget's June 2008 deadline to demonstrate their ability to carry IPv6 traffic across their backbone networks, but that doesn't mean the federal government is ready for the next-generation Internet. ...

IPv6 is a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol, known as IPv4. Version 6 features vastly more address space to allow computers, cell phones, gaming systems and other devices to connect directly to the Internet. ...

One agency that's far along in its IPv6 deployment is the Social Security Administration. SSA has been planning for its adoption since 2001. The agency has a Multi-Protocol Label Switching network supported by AT&T and Verizon. The network connects 1,800 field office locations and two main data centers in Woodlawn, Md., and Durham, N.C. SSA demonstrated it could support IPv6 in its network core in December 2007. "We are utilizing our architecture planning to ensure we have secure, shared IPv6-enabled network services using our regular tech refresh cycles. That is the key for us," says Rich Terzigni, senior adviser at SSA's Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations.

Its policy since 2005 has been to acquire only IPv6-capable routers, switches, firewalls and intrusion detection systems. SSA has an in-house lab for testing the IPv6 functionality of the equipment it buys. The agency refreshes technology every five years.

"By 2011 or 2012, depending on our tech refresh cycle, we'll be IPv6-capable from end to end," Terzigni says. SSA integrated IPv6 into its enterprise architecture and capital planning processes in 2005. OMB has rated the agency at maturity level 4 in every enterprise architecture assessment since February 2006.

"We recognized that OMB was not going to give us any additional funding for its IPv6 mandate, so it was necessary for us to build it into our capital planning activities. We had to build it into our standard budget cycle," explains Mark O'Donnell, also a senior adviser at SSA's Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations.

The agency plans to support IPv6 in dual-stack mode, which means all its servers and desktops will support both IPv4 and IPv6. It also will turn off certain IPv6 features that have security risks.

Now SSA is looking at its current and future applications to determine which ones need to support IPv6. "Future-proofing your network relies on IPv6," Terzigni says. "You're not going to be able to keep current in terms of interagency communications or communicating to the public if you don't embrace it."

Harkin Hails Progress

From a press release issued by Senator Tom Harkin:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today commended the Social Security Administration (SSA) for ending the year with fewer disability hearings pending than in the prior year for the first time since 1999. This reduction, Harkin said, is due in large part to a influx in funding. Harkin is a long-time advocate for individuals with disabilities and Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) administrative budget.

“For over a decade, the Social Security Administration’s backlog in disability claims was far too high and growing, so I commend the agency for reducing this number. For those living with disabilities, waiting for benefits is a long, difficult process,” Harkin said. “I expect the SSA to continue to aggressively tackle this problem in order to eliminate this backlog completely, and will continue my work to ensure that the agency has the resources in order to do so.”

As Chairman of the Senate’s Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Harkin has provided substantial increases in funding to help SSA reduce the backlog in disability claims and improve SSA’s other core services.