Electronic Medical Records For Wounded Warriors Press Release

     Social Security has sent out a press release touting a project to work with the Department of Defense to speed disability benefits to wounded warriors by increased efficiency in using electronic medical records.

Law Review Article On Non-Attorney Representation At Social Security -- And Pay Attention To What's Coming In June

     Drew Swank has written an article for the Southern Illinois University Law Journal on non-attorney representation of claimants at the Social Security Administration and unauthorized practice of law. Swank argues that Social Security should require that non-attorneys who represent Social Security claimants be competent and that the agency should establish a code of ethics applicable to both attorneys and non-attorneys who represent claimants before the agency.
     By the way, a footnote indicates that the Administrative Law Review will publish another article by Swank in June to be titled "The Social Security Administration’s Condoning of and Colluding with Attorney Misconduct."

Takei Wants Social Security To Boldly Recognize Same-Sex Marriages

     Trek Today reports that former Star Trek actor George Takei, who has appeared alongside Patty Duke to support online filing of Social Security claims, has appeared at a rally to support legislation to require that Social Security recognize same-sex marriages. Currently, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the Social Security Administration from recognizing same-sex marriages. (No, I don't ordinarily read Trek Today. Try Google Blog Seach. It's very useful.)

Is This A Good Idea?

     Disability Judges is a website that offers statistics on waiting times for each of Social Security's hearing offices, as well as reversal rates for each office and for each Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The site also offers the opportunity to file anonymous comments about each ALJ.

New Hearing Office In Jersey City

     Social Security has opened a new hearing office in Jersey City, New Jersey. The office will have eight Administrative Law Judges and 40 support staff. Previously, Jersey City residents had their hearings in Manhattan.

     Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue is pictured here with the Jersey City mayor, ODAR head Glenn Sklar and Social Security Regional Commissioner Beatrice Disman

Child Disability Contractor Sought

     Social Security is seeking a contractor to do the following over a 36 month time period:

• Examine how SSI [Supplemental Security Income] disability cash payments for children affect children and their families.
• Compare national trends in diagnosing mental disorders (including, but not limited to, ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder], autism, bipolar illness, depression, and learning disorders) and speech/language disorders in children to trends in the SSI disability program for children.
• Investigate the use of prescription medications for children with mental disorders.
• Identify whether the receipt of SSI payments creates an unintended culture of dependence, particularly among adolescent recipients.
• Evaluate the effect of SSA's [Social Security Administration's] "treating source" rule.

     The request for proposals goes on to say that the contractor chosen will:

• Examine and evaluate the rise in the number of children on SSI, and compare to the national diagnostic trends in children with mental disorders (including, but not limited to, ADHD, autism, bipolar illness, depression, learning disorders) and speech/language disorders.
• Identify factors (such as national poverty levels, access to health care, destigmatizing mental illness, changes in special education programs) that correlate with, or cause a, rise in the number of children on SSI with mental disorders and speech/language disorders.
• Identify the appropriate and effective treatment protocols for mental disorders and speech/language disorders in children, and determine to what extent the treatment for these disorders in SSI children is consistent with national treatment trends.
• Identify which mental disorders and speech/language disorders are amenable to treatment and subject to improving with age.
• Investigate the treatment of mental disorders for children on SSI.
• Are medications prescribed improperly for this population?
• Are physicians under pressure (explicit or implicit) to "help families make their case for" SSI payments?
• Evaluate whether SSA's medical source/treating source rules leave the SSI disability program for children vulnerable to manipulation or abuse.
• Evaluate to what extent, if any, the receipt of SSI cash payments creates a "culture of dependence" among children with disabilities and their families.
• Determine the relationship, if any, between a child's receipt of SSI cash payments and future school and work success.

     And Social Security wants the contractor to:

Organize outreach conferences with transcription services to provide a neutral ground for debate and analysis of emerging issues related to the evaluation of disability in children, such as the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders and speech/language disorders, and assessment of functional limitations, identified during the contract's period of performance (as approved by SSA) to be held in the Baltimore or Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Pointless

     The New York Times has an editorial today calling for a "balanced mix of modest benefit cuts and moderate tax increases, phased in slowly" to protect the Social Security trust funds.

Oh Lord! Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

     From Reuters:

It's rare to see a federal official publicly beg reporters to get a story right, but the commissioner of the Social Security Administration seemed ready to get down on his hands and knees at a Monday press briefing. Michael Astrue was cautioning journalists not to scare the public about the meaning of the word "exhaustion."

"Please, please remember that exhaustion is an actuarial term of art and it does not mean there will be no money left to pay any benefits" he warned in issuing the trustees' annual report on the financial health of the Social Security program.

"After 2033, even if Congress does nothing, there will still be sufficient assets (from payroll taxes) to pay about 75 percent of benefits. That's not acceptable, but it's still a fact that there will still be substantial assets there," Astrue insisted.