Surprising E-Verify Problem

All federal agencies are supposed to use the E-Verify system to determine that new hires are eligible to work in the U.S. E-Verify is a Department of Homeland Security operation, in theory, but the data comes from the Social Security Administration.

It turns out that in the first six months of fiscal year 2009, 19% of Social Security's new hires were not cleared through E-Verify according to a report from Social Security's Office of Inspector General(OIG). Forty-four of those new hires would not have been cleared by E-Verify. (The report does not go into this point but probably in most cases, maybe even all cases, the problems preventing the individual from being cleared by E-Verify would have been technical and could have been corrected.) Of those new hires who were verified, 49% were not verified on a timely basis, which is within three days of being hired.

Social Security agreed with OIG that the agency needs to do better.

Federal Computer Week is running a story on this.

Bomb Threat In Pennsylvania

A man has been arrested for yelling "If I don't get my check, I'm going to blow this building sky high" as he left the Easton, Pennsylvania Social Security field office.

Chubby Checker And Social Security

From Social Security's E-News:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, and Chubby Checker, the Grammy Award winning rock and roll legend, today launched a new public service campaign to inform millions of Americans about a new "twist" in the law that will make it easier to qualify for Extra Help with Medicare prescription drug costs. To learn more, click here.

Health Care Reform And Medicare

The Coalition to End the Two-Year Wait for Medicare has sent a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate Majority Leader giving their views on the pending health care reform legislation. The two year wait that the Coalition's name refers to is the waiting period for Medicare after a person becomes eligible for disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. The waiting period is actually two and a half years since it is on top of a five month waiting period before cash benefits begin that is usually six months because it is five full calendar months.

The letter is a good summary of the possible effects of the bills going into conference between the House and the Senate. Eliminating the two year waiting period is out of the question at the moment. The main issue is how many of these people will qualify for Medicaid. Here is an excerpt from the letter:

While both bills have a Medicaid expansion as an essential element in providing coverage to the uninsured, the House bill extends eligibility to people not eligible for Medicare with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The Senate bill’s ceiling on eligibility is set at 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Expanding eligibility for Medicaid will provide people with disabilities living near the poverty level access to comprehensive health coverage with limited cost sharing. Compared to providing coverage through an exchange, expanding Medicaid is both cost-effective and provides a level of benefits that helps eliminate cost as a barrier to care. We urge you to adopt the House bill’s directive to set eligibility for Medicaid at 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

The House and Senate bills also differ considerably in the help they provide with premiums and cost-sharing for individuals with limited incomes but above the Medicaid eligibility threshold. For example, under the Senate bill, individuals at 200 percent of the federal poverty level pay a higher share of income in premiums for plans that pay a smaller percentage of health care costs (lower actuarial value) than under the House bill. As a result, people with disabilities and limited incomes could face a combination of high premiums and large deductibles that make cost, even under the new coverage options available through the exchange, a continuing barrier to care. The Senate bill does provide valuable protections worth maintaining in the final bill, including overall caps on out-of-pocket spending and more generous premium subsidies for individuals between 250 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. However, it is essential that the final bill provide affordable coverage to people with disabilities on limited incomes. We urge you to adopt the actuarial values for exchange plans and the premium subsidies for people with limited incomes from the House bill.

Number Of Employees At Social Security Continues To Climb

Below are the September 2009 figures for the number of employees at Social Security, recently released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), along with earlier figures for comparison purposes.

• September 2009 67,632
  
• June 2009 66,614
  
• March 2009 63,229
  
• December 2008 63,733
  
• September 2008 63,990
  
• June 2008 63,622
  
• March 2008 60,465
  
• December 2007 61,822
• September 2007 62,407
• September 2006 63,647
• September 2005 66,147
• September 2004 65,258
• September 2003 64,903
• September 2002 64,648
• September 2001 65,377
• September 2000 64,521
• September 1999 63,957
• September 1998 65,629

New SSI Regulations

Social Security has posted new final regulations in the Federal Register. These are technical revisions to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) regulations on income and resources. The changes concern:

• Statutory Employees
• Exclusion of Child Tax Credit (CTC) From Income and Resources
• Exclusion of Flood Mitigation Payments From Income and Resources
• Exclusion of Energy Employee Occupational Illness Medical Benefits and Compensation Payment From Income and Resources
• Home Exclusion to Victims of Domestic Abuse
• Conditional Payments
  

But What If They Say No?

Social Security has posted a notice in today's Federal Register stating that it has decided to set a standard $15 payment that it will make for electronically transferred medical records. According to Social Security "The $15 rate is based on our average payment for medical records obtained through non-health IT [Information Technology] processes."

I would like to cap what my firm pays for medical records in this fashion. Unfortunately, even with a state statute controlling medical record cost, we have to pay more in most cases or we do not get the records we want.

Fee Payment Numbers

Social Security has posted these final numbers on payments to attorneys and others for representation of claimants before the Social Security Administration in 2009.

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-09	28,423	$101,128,880.69
Feb-09	31,352	$112,791,207.17
Mar-09	29,199	$104,155,187.96
Apr-09	30,963	$110,133,425.19
May-09	36,603	$126,725,262.45
June-09	31,799	$113,962,564.84
July-09	34,802	$124,621,068.71
Aug-09	28,218	$100,279,282.51
Sept-09	28,455	$100,918,402.40
Oct-09	36,729	$131,011,485.43
Nov-09	29,423	$103,696,628.46
Dec-09	25,753	$90,630,340.80