Republican Senator Threatens Government Debt Default Unless Social Security Cut

Senator Lindsay Graham was asked on Meet the Press if he was going to vote for an increase in the federal debt ceiling. That will be needed around April of this year. His response was that "to not raise the debt ceiling could be a default of the United States on bond and treasury obligations" but he also said that "I will not vote for the debt ceiling increase until I see a plan in place that will deal with our long term debt obligations starting with Social Security, a real bipartisan effort to make sure that Social Security stays solvent, adjusting the age, looking at means tests for benefits."

Social Security Approves CCD

From a press release:

EHR Doctors announced today that The Social Security Administration (SSA) approved their C32 Continuity of Care Document (CCD). EHR Doctors, Inc. has a contract to deliver Electronic Health Records in CCD format to the Social Security Administration over the Nationwide Health Information Network.

The capability to generate CCDs is a critical piece of technology that hospitals need to meet the Meaningful Use requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The technology enables an interoperable health record that can be shared between organizations for purposes ranging from transitions in care to adjudication of insurance claims. EHR Doctors CCD technology is certified for Meaningful Use under the ONC-ATB program.

EHR Doctors' contract with the Social Security Administration enables SSA to use EHR Doctor's Medibridge Health Information Exchange to electronically gather health records in support of disability claims, and get them rapidly into the hands of SSA adjudicators. This technology, “will improve our disability programs and provide better service to the public,” said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. "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,” he added.

Seguro Social Gigante!

Sábado Gigante host, Don Francisco, is now promoting the Spanish language version of Social Security's benefits estimator. (By the way, Social Security, you ought to let others embed your videos.)

Happy New Year!

An Historical Question

Is the health care reform bill passed this year the most important piece of legislation signed into law since the Social Security Act?

The two other pieces of legislation that I can think of that might compare would be Medicare and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Medicare was and is extremely important but this new legislation gives health care to far more people. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was of such a different nature that comparisons are difficult.

What do you think?

Data Theft At Social Security Contractor

A New York television station is reporting that a man who was working on computers belonging to a contractor hired by Social Security downloaded personal information on 15,000 New Yorkers who had applied for disability benefits. The alleged culprit has been charged and those whose personal information was downloaded have been notified.

Furloughs May Continue In California

From the Contra Costa Times:

For more than a year, state workers who go through disability applications were ordered by [California] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to take two or three unpaid days off each month.

That's a practice that disability advocates say has hurt disabled workers and state employees but hasn't helped the state.

But it's a practice that could continue, though to a lesser degree, after Schwarzenegger leaves office. ...

[T]he Social Security Administration has sent a letter to Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, asking him to ensure that SSDI processors are "exempt from any sort of furloughs or pay freezes or overtime restrictions."

It's not clear, though, if anything will change under Brown's leadership. Brown spokesman Evan Westrup pointed out that the once-per-month furloughs are now part of a new contract between the state and the union representing SSDI processors and that undoing those furloughs could require renegotiating that contract.

ALJ Pay Frozen As Well

From the Washington Post:

The two-year pay freeze that is now law for federal employees on the pay scale known as the General Schedule will also apply to hundreds of thousands of civil servants whose wages are set under a separate salary system, according to an executive order signed last week by President Obama. ...

They include ... administrative law judges and attorneys ...