On March 25, 2009, your staff asked that we review allegations by the American Association of Social Security Disability Consultants (AASSDC) that (1) medical consultant (MC) assessments were altered and/or destroyed in the disability determination services, (2) MCs were pressured to produce specific assessments, and (3) disability examiners were seeking certain MCs to obtain specific assessments. ...
Of the two MCs who indicated an assessment was altered, each described one-time occurrences. In one of these cases, the MC prepared a complex assessment not taken into consideration when making the final disability determination. This occurred in a DDS with SDM authority and a supervisor noted that they did not consider the MC’s assessment. In the other instance, the MC did not give details other than it occurred over 2 years ago. ...Of the 189 MCs who participated in our review,
- 182 indicated assessments were not deleted, and
- 7 indicated assessments were deleted.
Of the seven MCs who indicated an assessment was deleted, six reported
it was a one time occurrence. For example, an MC indicated an assessment was deleted because a more experienced consultant provided another assessment. The MC was notified and made aware of why the DE removed his assessment from the disability folder.
These obits are not easy to find. I would run them more often if I could.Edwin G. Abel Jr., 75, of Wallingford, a former Social Security Administration executive, died of sepsis Friday, May 28, at Wallingford Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. ...Mr. Abel began his career with Social Security in 1960 as a claims representative trainee in Baltimore.
He became branch manager in Bennettsville, S.C., in 1968, when the South Carolina Jaycees named him its outstanding young man of the year, his son Ted said.
From 1969, he was in the agency's Philadelphia office, becoming an area director in the Office of Disability. In the 1980s, he was director of operations at the agency's Mid-Atlantic Program Service Center. He retired in 2007.
An attorney and a judge, bitter enemies, arrive at an elevator at the same time. They argue over who gets to ride down, then scuffle. Police arrest the attorney, who slaps a restraining order on the judge.
Sounds like a lame lawyer joke. But no. The flap occurred recently at Social Security's customarily sedate hearing office in downtown Portland, the climactic moment in a testy three-year war of words between a disability claims attorney and an administrative law judge.
Mike Stark caught up with Democratic Majority Whip James Clyburn and asked him where he stood with regard to the Deficit Commission and potential plans to cut Social Security benefits....CLYBURN To be fair — and I may get beaten up by some people on this, and that’s all right, I get beaten up a lot. But I think to be fair, you cannot possibly not modify a program that at the time of its enactment, we had 17 people working for every one person that was a retiree. Today, you have about three people working for every one person that is a retiree. Now that is unsustainable. ...
STARK: Is means testing the fairest way?
CLYBURN: I think that’s one way we ought to be…we ought to be discussing means testing. I think that those of us who operate at the income level that I operate at ought to be means tested.
Brief Summary
An attorney had practiced in Iowa under a state multijurisdictional practice (MJP) rule allowing lawyers licensed in another jurisdiction to handle certain federal law matters. In a case of first impression for the Iowa Supreme Court, the Court used its equitable power to enjoin the attorney from practicing in Iowa under any rule for two years as a result of trust account and other ethics violations.
