1099s Start Arriving

Attorneys have started receiving 1099s from Social Security showing attorney fees paid by Social Security. I have already received reports of income reported in box 7 instead of box 14, which is where I believe it is supposed to be reported, and of a 1099 not recording all Social Security attorney fees paid to an attorney in 2009, which will not cause problems for the attorney, but which is a bad sign anyway.

What are you seeing?

Is Social Security An Out Of Control Entitlement?

It is an article of faith among many that entitlements are destroying the federal budget and that Social Security is a big part of the entitlement monster. That may be true of Medicare, but Social Security? Take a look at this chart from the New York Times. Does it look like Social Security is threatening to wreck the federal budget? By the way, the author does make one big mistake. Social Security is not off budget. It should be and probably will be in the not too distant future, but it isn't now.

Union Newsletter Out

Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) ,the union that represents most Social Security employees, has issued its January 2010 newsletter.

The union and Social Security are in contract negotiations. The newsletter quotes the union president, Witold Skwierczynski, as saying that “After reviewing the Agency’s initial contract proposals, it is clear that SSA’s [Social Security Administration's] intent is to severely restrict the [Union’s] ability to represent SSA employees" which sounds like the prospects for a new contract are poor, but for Skwierczynski this is a bit tame.

The newsletter contains an interesting allegation of management impropriety at a field office:

The manager of the Independence, Missouri Social Security Office has apparently found a unique way to make himself look better: take applications from people with-out actually contacting them, and then process those phony claims.

When Jared Gaspard realized in June that his office would not meet its statistical “goals” for that month, he checked the agency’s computer system to determine who had filed for Social Security Disability but not SSI.

According to Witold Skwierczynski, the President of the National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, Gaspard then manufactured a series of SSI applications.

Interesting Turnaround

Small town newspaper runs article encouraging people to use the internet to do business with Social Security. Sounds like it is probably something written by Social Security. The Rutland, VT Herald is running this kind of article and it was written by Social Security. The interesting thing about the article is that it begins like this:

If you have recently called Social Security, you may have gotten a busy signal or been put on hold. When visiting an office you may have had to wait longer to see someone. ...

This wave [of baby boomer retirees] is generating a "tsunami" of retirement and disability applications – an expected 40 percent annual increase.

Social Security does not expect to be able to increase staff to meet the demand. More people contacting the same number of Social Security workers equals busy signals on the phone and longer waits in the office. If we cannot hire more people what else can we do to help the increasing number of people in need of our services?

Instead of pretending that it is giving good service, the agency is now touting its poor service as a reason why the public should do its Social Security business online. That is quite a change.

By the way, have Social Security's online services advanced to the point where it saves staff time for the public to file claims online?

Twenty-Seven Times!

According to the Detroit News, Jeffrey Walls kept telling Social Security that his Social Security check was lost or stolen. He kept asking for a replacement check and he kept getting them. He also kept cashing both checks. This happened 27 times before Walls was charged with making false claims.

An 8% Funding Increase Won't Buy Anything Like What You'd Think

Social Security's Overview of the President's proposed budget shows that even with an 8% increase in funding, Social Security expects its number of full time equivalents (FTEs) to increase by only 278 or four tenths of one percent in the next fiscal year (FY). Disability Determination Services (DDS) FTEs will increase by 984 or 6.1%. Social Security expects to hire only 70 additional Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

The Overview also indicates that Social Security expects to implement online scheduling of appointments in fiscal year (FY) 2011.

Astrue On President's Proposed Budget

A press release from Social Security:

By requesting $12.5 billion for Social Security's administrative expenses, an eight percent increase over the previous year, President Obama has again shown that he clearly understands the workload challenges we face. The additional funding is critical to our efforts to continue driving down the hearings backlog, something we were able to do in fiscal year 2009 for the first time in over a decade. This funding also will allow us to process an increasing number of retirement and disability claims, and improve our aging infrastructure.

For seventy-five years, Americans have depended on Social Security. We know that millions of Americans continue to count on us to provide them with the service they need and deserve. It is critical that Congress enact President Obama's budget proposal in a timely manner.

For more information about the President's 2011 budget request for Social Security, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/budget.

Electronic Medical Records Contracts Awarded

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that 15 healthcare providers and networks have received $17.4 million in contract awards to provide electronic medical records to the agency. These electronic medical records, which will be sent through the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), will significantly shorten the time it takes to make a disability decision and will improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the disability program.

“Using health information technology will improve our disability programs and provide better service to the public,” Commissioner Astrue said. “We’ve seen a significant increase in disability applications. To process them, the agency sends more than 15 million requests annually for medical records to healthcare providers. This largely paper-bound workload is generally the most time-consuming part of the disability decision process. The use of health IT will dramatically improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of this process, reducing the cost of making a disability decision for both the medical community and the American taxpayer.”

The contract awards are funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. They will require awardees, with a patient’s authorization, to send Social Security electronic medical records through the NHIN. The NHIN, a safe and secure method for receiving access to electronic medical records over the Internet, is an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services supported by multiple government agencies and private sector entities.

For the last year, Social Security has been successfully testing health IT to obtain electronic medical records. Disability applications processed with electronic medical records from the test sites in Massachusetts and Virginia have significantly reduced processing times. Some decisions are now made in days, instead of weeks or months. Social Security expects to receive more than 3.3 million applications in fiscal year (FY) 2010, a 27 percent increase over FY 2008.

Contracts were awarded to the following organizations:

1. Cal RHIO, San Francisco, CA - $1,625,000
2. CareSpark, Kingsport, TN - $1,363,000
3. Center for Healthy Communities, Wright State University, Healthlink, Dayton, OH - $999,000
4. Central Virginia Health Network/MedVirginia, Richmond, VA - $1,139,000
5. Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC), Duluth, MN - $977,000
6. Douglas County Individual Practice Association, Roseburg, OR - $502,000
7. EHR Doctors Inc., Pompano Beach, FL - $1,000,000
8. HealthBridge, Cincinnati, OH - $1,400,000
9. Lovelace Clinic Foundation (LCF), Albuquerque, NM - $1,083,000
10. Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI - $998,000
11. Memorial Hospital Foundation & Memorial Hospital of Gulfport Foundation, Inc., Gulfport, MS - $1,100,000
12. Oregon Community Health Information Network (OCHIN), Portland, OR - $284,000
13. Regenstrief Institute, Inc, Indianapolis, IN - $350,000
14. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Reston, VA - $1,587,000
15. Southeastern Michigan Health Association, Detroit, MI - $2,988,000