Position: Director, Center for Automation (Kelley) and Project Manager (Ristow)
Agency: Social Security Administration, Denver Region
Location: Denver, Colorado
Residence: Commerce City, Colorado (Kelley) and Westminster, Colorado (Ristow)
Achievement: Improved the delivery of Social Security benefits to citizens living in impoverished and remote locations through an innovative two-way video service.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has found it difficult to serve Americans living in remote and poor regions of the country, particularly on Indian reservations in the West where disabled and elderly citizens often have failed to take advantage of benefits that they desperately need.
Shane Kelley and Eva Ristow have helped bridge this gap, linking difficult-to-serve Indian communities in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah to Social Security claims officials hundreds of miles away through an Internet-based two-way video conferencing system called Video Service Delivery (VSD).
“VSD’s greatest impact is its ability to bridge distances to help government reach the customer rather than expecting the customer to reach government,” said Kelley.
This vast six-state geographic area is home to 29 Indian reservations, where life can be difficult. The two million acre Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, for example, contains three of the poorest counties in the United States. Infant mortality is five times the national average, the adolescent suicide rate is four times the national average and unemployment hovers around 80 percent. Additionally, life expectancy is about 50 years, and 49 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line.
The delivery of Social Security services to such poor, remote locations is a challenge. Although connected by telephone and periodic visits, Social Security representatives have not always been able to achieve the consistent “visual” communications essential in establishing an understanding of benefit programs. As a result, many applicants missed their scheduled interviews, leading to incomplete claims.
Social Security beneficiaries in these areas can now go to designated local libraries, public health clinics or other facilities close to home and get service “on demand” via the two-way video connection. Thanks to this added accessibility, VSD has increased the number of benefit applications by nearly 80 percent among Native Americans at some of the reservations.
“Some of these individuals have an average annual income of $3,000. Helping them receive disability or retirement benefits has had a huge impact,” said Jan Foushee, a senior executive program specialist with Social Security. “The money they receive can help support entire families and has an impact on the communities as well.”
The program has grown from a handful of units to hook-ups in about 70 locations in the Western states. The agency has now begun implementation of the system in the nine other Social Security regions around the country, with about 180 VSD units having been deployed so far.
Nancy Berryhill, the Social Security regional commissioner in Denver, said the concept was first tested in 2003, before Kelley came on board, by connecting the Minot Social Security Office in North Dakota to the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Nation.
But she said he took over the slow moving project in 2007, handled key technical details, found suitable sites for installation, promoted it to regional commissioners around the country and made it a model that now has unlimited possibilities to improve service.
“Without Shane’s leadership and vision, this would not have become a reality,” said Berryhill. “There was really no road map, but Shane is a problem solver. For him there are no problems, just opportunity.”
One recent successful connection has linked Hawaii with its remote satellite office in American Samoa. Social Security also has linked VSD units in high-traffic offices in New York City to locations in upstate New York. The upstate claims representatives now assist the beneficiaries in the city through the video service.
In addition, Social Security is planning to extend the video claims service, in cooperation with the State Department, to reach Americans living in Canada and possibly Europe, and is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on a project called “VA Connect” to assist disabled veterans returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Besides receiving VA benefits, veterans can be connected via VSD to Social Security officers who can help them get the assistance they need. The first SSA/VA Connect claim came from a veteran undergoing treatment for stage four colon cancer and it was approved in just two days.
Kelley led the VSD effort for three years until a recent promotion, and has since worked alongside his colleague, Ristow, the current VSD project manager.
Kelley said he realized early on that they would need to prove to Social Security colleagues and the public that the equipment was secure, cost-effective and able to improve the delivery of services. He initiated a program in several Wyoming libraries, and the success of these efforts led to rapid expansion.
“As soon as I saw how clear the video connections were, I knew VSD would greatly enhance the way SSA delivers service to the public,” he said
Martha Lambie, Social Security deputy regional commissioner in Denver, said the project never would have materialized into anything substantial without Kelley. “He took a concept and made it a reality,” she said.
May 7, 2010
Social Security Employees Recognized
May 5, 2010
It Started With A Spider Bite
David Voss said a bite from a brown recluse spider in 2001 led to a series of health problems so severe he eventually became an amputee.
"When they started amputating my toe, and then my next toe, and then my leg I'm done," Voss said.
Voss said he can't work.
"I can't do what I used to do," Voss said. "I couldn't drive my truck. I couldn't sell equipment like I was. I've been living in my truck for six months because I couldn't find a job."
Voss said in March he got a spot at a home for homeless veterans in Greenville but he can only stay for four months and then he's back out on the street. He said he's applied several times for assistance through the Supplemental Security Income program with the Social Security Administration. The program pays benefits to the disabled who have limited income. But Voss said SSA kept turning him down saying his condition is not expected to remain severe enough for 12 months in a row to keep him from working.
"How they figure it ain't gonna last more than 12 months," asked Voss. "I've been measuring my leg and it still ain't growed none and I ain't found two toes popped out either."
Two days after 7 On Your Side asked the SSA about Voss's case he was approved. When we asked SSA spokesperson Patti Patterson if there was something specific they received recently that helped SSA to change it's mind about his case Patterson replied, "No. He filed his application on March 1st. We were able to make that decision on April 30th based on all the medical records that we had."
Regulatory Proposal On Partially Favorable Prehearing Reviews
We propose to revise the procedures for how claimants who request hearings before administrative law judges (ALJs) may appeal their fully favorable revised determinations based on prehearing case reviews or fully favorable attorney advisor decisions. We also propose to notify claimants who receive partially favorable determinations based on prehearing case reviews that we will still hold the requested ALJ hearing unless all parties to the hearing tell us in writing that we should dismiss the hearing requests. We expect that these changes will lessen the confusion claimants may experience in these processes and free scarce administrative resources that we can better use to reduce the hearings level case backlog.
May 4, 2010
Social Security's Online Services Rate Highly
Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s online services continue to be the best in government and exceed the top private sector sites in customer satisfaction. In the latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Social Security’s online Retirement Estimator and benefit application remain in the top spots, each with a score of 90, and the Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs application placed third with a score of 87.
“Online services are vital to good public service and I am pleased that Social Security continues to provide the best in both government and the private sector,” Commissioner Astrue said. “The Internet provides the public with the ability to conduct business at their convenience and at their own pace, without the need to take leave from work, travel to a field office, and wait to meet with an agency representative. It also reduces the time spent by our employees processing claims and frees them up to spend more time handling complex cases.”
Social Security’s three top-rated online services also meet or exceed the private sector’s highest score, Netflix, with a score of 87. The ACSI notes that this shows “that government sites can satisfy visitors just as well as, or even better than, private-sector sites.”
The ACSI is the only uniform, national, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available in the U.S. According to ACSI, “Any website, whether in the private or public sector, that scores an average of 80 or higher can be considered superior in meeting site visitors’ needs and expectations.” Social Security’s Business Services Online, with a score of 82, also meets this superior threshold.
To view all of Social Security’s online services, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/onlineservices.
You Really Ought To Study This And File Comments
We are requesting comments on the recommendations submitted to us by the Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel (Panel) in its report entitled ``Content Model and Classification Recommendations for the Social Security Administration Occupational Information System, September 2009.'' The complete Panel report (including appendices) is available online at: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oidap/Documents/FinalReportRecommendations.pdf.DATES: To ensure that we receive your feedback in a timely manner for consideration as the project develops, please submit your comments no later than June 30, 2010. ...
We strongly recommend that you submit your comments via the Internet. Please visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function of the Web page to find docket number SSA-2010-0018.
The Sky Is Falling?
You can read the piece and judge for yourself. It looks basic and harmless to me. Perhaps what this reveals more than anything is a lack of trust between Social Security and its ALJs.
May 3, 2010
Remand Policy
Remands of service area realignment cases in which the hearing office servicing the claimant’s address has changed since the initial hearing will remain at the servicing hearing office and will not be transferred to the hearing office of the ALJ who heard the case. ...
Remanded cases returning to the hearing office servicing the claimant’s current residence address which were heard in another hearing office as a result of a permanent case transfer, will be heard by an ALJ in the servicing hearing office.