An eastern Kentucky law firm has agreed to pay a more than seven thousand dollar penalty to the Social Security Administration.Kirk Law Firm was investigated by the SSA Office of Inspector General after signs were put up at offices in Prestonsburg and Inez that read, “Social Security Sign Up Office.”The OIG says the signs were confusing and misleading.John Kirk says there was no attempt to mislead anyone with the signs.
Diane Braunstein’s large smile and warm laugh can be infectious. She speaks calmly as she sits in a high-backed, dark wooden chair in her spacious Baltimore office, a master bureaucrat.If that seems a cold or callous characterization, her actions have been anything but. One look at her résumé shows she’s spent a lifetime mastering the minutia of process and regulation on behalf of the elderly, the ill and the disabled at the Social Security Administration and other organizations.Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue appointed Braunstein director of a program called Compassionate Allowances in 2007 after she helped him about 20 years earlier when his terminally ill father could not quickly obtain benefits.The two were working together at the Department of Health and Human Services. Astrue’s father developed glioblastoma, an often-fatal brain cancer that resulted in a coma. Astrue found himself trying to file for benefits on behalf of someone who wasn’t able to speak.“It was a huge surprise and a time of high anxiety,” he said. “Having someone as competent as Diane was a great blessing.”