Two Federal Register Items

Today's Federal Register includes two items from the Social Security Administration. The sunset dates for the Listings for Cardiovascular System, Endocrine System, Growth Impairment, Hematological Disorders, Musculoskeletal System, Mental Disorders and Neurological, and Respiratory System have been extended to July 2, 2012. We do know that proposed new Listings for mental disorders may be coming in the near future, however. Social Security has also decided to change from using the word "Wholly" to using the word "Fully" when describing decisions that are completely favorable to claimants. I have no idea why they are going to the trouble to do this. The only explanation is that this "will make our regulations clearer and more consistent." Must be somebody's pet peeve.

Major Online Problem At Social Security?

I have received an unconfirmed report that there has been a major problem with a online form used by Social Security disability claimants to record their medical sources, the i3368. Social Security needs this medical source information to know where to write for medical records. Data entered on the i3368 between February 24 and May 31 of this year may not have propagated into Social Security's other data systems. Data may have been lost, perhaps permanently, a very scary prospect. Claimants may have been denied based upon a mistaken belief that they had not received recent medical treatment.

It was unclear from the report I received whether this was only some of the i3368s during this time period or all of them. It was also unclear to me whether this was only a problem for data entered online by claimants or their representatives or whether the problem extended to data entered by Social Security employees. If the report I have heard is true, I imagine that Social Security is still trying to figure out just how bad this is.

I would appreciate any information about this problem. If the report I have heard is true, Social Security needs to issue a press release today, even if the full dimensions of the problem are still not clear.

New Rule For On-Site CE Reviews

From a final rule posted in the Federal Register today by the Social Security Administration:

We are revising the threshold billing amount that triggers annual on-site reviews of medical providers who conduct consultative examinations (CEs) for our disability programs under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act). The revision will raise the threshold amount to reflect the increase in billing amounts since we first established the threshold amount in 1991. We expect the revised threshold amount will reestablish the level of oversight activity we required under our original rules.

Deficit Commission Taking Aim At Social Security

From the Washington Post:

One of the oddest Web posts making the rounds in Washington is a series of blurry videos from Capitol Hill showing people coming and going from a closed-door meeting of President Obama's new deficit commission.

The mundane scenes have a sinister cast for activists who say the commission is at work on a secret plan to gut Social Security. Nancy Altman, whose group, Social Security Works, shot the footage, says the threat to the nation's primary social safety net is greater now than at any time in the program's 75-year history. ...

[S]everal groups, including MoveOn.org and the Campaign for America's Future, are threatening to make Social Security an issue in the midterm elections.

"It's likely to be a pretty full court press," said MoveOn campaign director Daniel Mintz, whose group plans to ask candidates to sign a pledge opposing Social Security cuts. "We're going to demand solutions to the deficit that make corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes, rather than cutting benefits and squeezing the middle class." ...

Five years ago, when then-President George W. Bush proposed carving out a portion of Social Security taxes to create private retirement accounts, a coalition of progressive groups and advocates for the elderly organized to smother the plan. Even in a Republican Congress, the idea went nowhere. In 2006, Democrats campaigned against the plan and regained control of Congress.

Now some of the same groups are watching Obama's commission closely. They note that many of its members have publicly advocated cutting Social Security, including co-chairman Alan Simpson, a former GOP senator from Wyoming, who has chastised "greedy geezers" for fighting to protect their retirement checks while their grandchildren face a towering debt.

"Social Security is not the problem. It's simply becoming the target," said Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Social Security Really Matters

From Employee Benefit Research Institute. Source: EBRI estimates of the March 2009 Current Population Survey.

Establishing The Effective Date Of Claims For Benefits

Social Security has issued an update to its Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) addressing the issues involved with establishing the date of a claim for benefits. The date of a claim for benefits can affect the starting date for benefits. A claim for benefits that is filed too early can result in the denial of a claim. I would not say there is anything particularly new here but it is useful to see it all in one place and, especially, to see the effective date of claims filed over the internet discussed.

Updated ALJ Disposition Stats

Social Security has posted updated statistics on Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) dispositions, showing how many cases they disposed of during the time period October 1, 2009 to March 26, 2010 and how many of those dispositions were allowances.

One Of These Guys Will Be In The Senate Soon

From the Salt Lake City Tribune:

Utah's Republican Senate candidates have outlined a vision for reforming Social Security that includes raising retirement ages, private accounts and, in Mike Lee's case, taking the retirement safety net away from the federal government and letting states run it.

"Somewhere down the road we need to ask: Is the federal government the right government to be administering this?" Lee asked. "You don't find a retirement system in [the Constitution]. That, with the 10th Amendment, says it's a program best administered by the states."

Lee's proposal would mark a historic shift in the 75-year-old program, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in three cases in 1937 is a constitutional exercise of federal power. ...

For his part, Lee also proposed significant increases in the retirement age for younger workers, suggesting that for workers 20 years from retirement, the age at which they would qualify for benefits should be raised by one year every other year.

That means a worker who is 47 years old now -- 20 years from full retirement under the current system -- would not be able to retire until he or she is 77 years old, adding an extra 10 years to their expected period of employment.