We are revising our rules on a temporary basis to permit State agency disability examiners to make fully favorable determinations in certain claims for disability benefits under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act) without the approval of a State agency medical or psychological consultant. These changes apply only to claims we consider under our rules for quick disability determinations (QDD) or under our compassionate allowance initiative.
What I wonder is whether this encryption even helps secure these files. Doesn't Social Security have to send all the information needed to decrypt the files when it sends the CD to the person representing the claimant? A CD with no identifying information is useless. A CD with full identifying information can be decrypted by anyone. Social Security could send the CDs with just the name or the Social Security number but that is problematic. Unless the attorney is using a database -- and most do not -- sending just the Social Security number would not be enough to allow the attorney to figure out whose CD it is. For that matter, it is not difficult to go online and find out a person's identity using their Social Security number. Sending just the name would not be enough in many cases to allow identification of the claimant. A friend of mine who practices in Texas has told me that he has many clients with identical names such as Jose Rodriguez or Maria Hernandez. I do not have so many Hispanic clients but my firm certainly has clients with duplicate names. It happens all the time.
Although SSA’s cost systems were not set up to specifically track and accumulate training costs in one report or management information system, we reviewed the available financial data and estimated the Agency spent approximately $409 million on training-related activities in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, representing about 3.8 percent of SSA’s $10.7 billion administrative budget. This amount does not include training costs incurred by the State disability determination services, which we estimated could be another $64 million. SSA incurred approximately $9.7 million in off-site conference costs in FY 2009, or about 2.4 percent of the estimated $409 million spent by the Agency on training in FY 2009 (and less than 0.1 percent of the Agency’s administrative budget). Beginning in FY 2010, off-site conferences became subject to centralized oversight to ensure such training closely adhered to the Agency’s training procurement policies.
From Federal Computer Week:
The Social Security Administration’s recent video competition generated fewer than 10 entries, and is the latest in a string of federal video-production promotions with lackluster participation.
The contests to create original videos are part of open government/innovation programs at several agencies. In April, a video contest at the Environmental Protection Agency drew in about 20 entries, and another one at the General Services Administration attracted about 30 entries. Both those competitions offered $2,500 prizes.
The SSA contest to create a publicity video for the agency offered no cash prize, yet generated high hopes. “We anticipated selecting the winner – or even several – from a sizable collection of contest entries," Frank Baitman, SSA chief information officer, wrote on the White House Open Government Blog on Oct. 1. "Well, we didn’t get as much participation as we’d hoped. Fewer than ten solid entries came in.”
As an ME, I have been using this encryption system on cases from various California ODAR offices since March, 2010. The "transition" was without warning...discs simply arrived, and my follow-up calls yielded an instruction sheet. It has been very difficult for me, as I am an Apple computer user, and this encryption system is based solely on Windows. (I had just purchased a new Apple, with dual operating systems in January!) There was some ODAR acknowledgment that the encryption system was out of date, even before it was implemented...it used Windows XP, which was no longer even on the market. It was to be updated to Vista (also out-dated) in mid-summer, with no time-line for updating to the current Windows version. Tech support from the ODAR offices amounted to comments that I should just buy another computer!
A local computer shop helped me, by finding a copy of Windows XP, but the 'work-around' is terrible. There is no way to use scroll functions within Exhibit documents, nor is there a way to get thumbnails. Each page has to be 'clicked through' to the last page in the exhibit, where the chronology usually begins. That is terribly laborious, and a waste of time. "Sizing" documents to make them readable also requires many more steps. Bottom line is that a file takes me at least twice as long to read.
I don't believe this is solely a problem related to using an Apple computer, as the hearing room computers I have been using have the same issues. In my opinion, SSA has invested in a system that was flawed even before roll-out, and I can see nothing has been done to correct the problems.
p.s. If anyone has other work-around ideas for me, I'd love to hear them.
10:02 AM, October 11, 2010
I heard about this nonsense at NOSSCR, and when I received the letter that Charles received I knew I was right, and that this would be a complete disaster. After reading the comment by the CA ME above, I am confident that this encryption system, while noble at heart, is another example of SSA taking a good idea and smashing it with a ball-peen hammer. I sure am glad I have online access through Electronic Record Express so I don't have to waste time with these encrypted discs.
11:36 AM, October 11, 2010
I commented on CONNECT message board that I, too, use a Mac at home, and do not want to have to buy a copy of Windows to install just to use these discs on my home computer. To the ME above, you may have bought an Apple computer with both operating systems included, but you paid extra to have the Windows OS installed. They don't ordinarily come with the two OSs installed. I would have to purchase and install Windows in order to do this.
And is it true that the encryption method is not compatible with Windows 7? If so, the ODAR tech support's "solution" to buy another computer is off-base, because no new computers are being shipped with Vista or with XP; they are all now Windows 7. So now that means that at my office I can't even sit at my own desktop computer, but will have to go find someone who will let me use their older computer with XP on it to look at these discs?
Tell me that, at least, if I can open the documents on one of these, I can convert it all to PDF?
What a crock.
12:03 PM, October 11, 2010
ME responding about the Apple problems...
My new Apple came with the usual Apple OS. Then I bought Parallels software (so I could use the Windows environment), plus Windows 7...several hundred $ extra for this. The encryption software would not work with 7...that's when the contact began with ODAR tech people. They were the folks who told me they knew 7 wouldn't work, that it was set up on XP, to later transition to Vista.
I have never been able to convert to pdf...
2:44 PM, October 11, 2010
It's really amazing to me that everyone wants to protect a person's(Claimant's) privacy.--If that's so why haven't any of the 20 or so envelopes I received from SS via the USPS been sealed,taped or licked shut-- they are always wide open---anyone who handles my mail can read everything about me-- sometimes I don't even get all of the pages of a decision.
4:58 PM, October 11, 2010
It's so pleasing to see that the "professionals" working on cases apparently put their convenience ahead of protecting the privacy of the claimants. Whine, whine whine. Waahh, I use Apple. Grow up. If this is your attitude towards patient privacy, I certainly hope you aren't covered by HIPAA in your primary business because you are a fine waiting to happen.
Those CDs should have been encrypted 3 years ago, that's what the problem is and folks getting the CDs just need to either deal or move on. The world has changed whether you like it or not. 46 states have breach laws, HIPAA, HITECH apply to many and OMB directs federal agencies so get with the program.
The fact people are complaining about something so fundamental exposes a likely lax attitude towards other aspects of privacy protection.
Too bad SSA hasn't the staff to audit you folks.
6:09 PM, October 11, 2010
Anonymous ME:
Yes you are right about what is needed to run Windows on a Mac. Now, it's a wonderful thing, that Macs will run dual operating systems, but it does cost more, and it's no excuse for SSA to not make their records available to all.
What about claimants? Are their files not encrypted? If not, then why is there not a concern about their privacy? Seems that as a representative, I will do a better job to maintain my client's privacy even without encryption - after all, I have an additional incentive to do so because of Bar rules governing my behavior toward clients.
The letter states "No additional software is necessary to read the information on the encrypted CD." Well, we've shown that this is not true. And hearing that these CDs are only readable on Windows XP, and that the next upgrade will be to Vista makes me question the comptetency of their IT department.
Dr. ME, with regard to converting to PDF: on a Windows machine, you need either the full Adobe Acrobat program, or a shareware add-on to convert documents to PDF. If you're new to Mac, you may not know that the ability to convert any document into PDF is built-in to the Mac's Print function. In the Print dialogue box, you'll see a PDF button on the far left of the bottom row. You can save as PDF, fax, email, etc. A real handy feature.
Mr. Hall, is there something we can do to head this off?