It's Not Just The U.S.

     Canada has bad Social Security disability claim backlogs and they're getting worse. This is happening after a "reform" that was supposed to make the disability adjudication process more efficient and streamlined. The main problem in Canada, though, is not having enough employees to get the work done. As in the U.S., you can't "reform" your way out of the problems caused by inadequate staffing.

NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization for the state agency personnel who make initial and reconsideration determinations for Social Security, has released its Summer 2014 newsletter.

Expansion Of CDIs

     From a press release issued by Social Security's press office (not from the Office of Inspector General's office but from Social Security's main press office):

The Social Security Administration, its Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and the Michigan Department of Human Services today announced a new Cooperative Disability Investigations (CDI) Unit in Detroit. As part of the nationwide CDI Program, the Detroit Unit will identify and prevent Social Security disability fraud throughout the State of Michigan. ...

With the opening of the Detroit Unit, the CDI program now consists of 26 units covering 22 States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Detroit CDI Unit is the first of seven new CDI units that SSA and the OIG plan to establish by the end of fiscal year 2016 ...

The Report Vanishes

     A few days ago, I posted a link to a study by the Mathematica Center for Studying Disability Policy on "Vocational Factors in the Social Security Disability Determination Process: A Literature Review." I know some of you read the study report. Interestingly, the link no longer works and Mathematica's website no longer has any reference to the study. Does anyone know what happened?

Senator Hears About Social Security Service Problems

     From a story in the Missoulian about a town hall meeting that Senator John Walsh (D-MT) held in Missoula:

Mary Olson, who worked for the Social Security Administration for 29 years and now works for Missoula Aging Services, told Walsh the plan to move the program entirely online in 11 years, called “Vision 2025,” is destined for disaster. 

“The majority of rural America does not know how to use an online system, and it won’t work,” she said. “There is no simple part of Social Security. I wasn’t a social worker, but I became one working for the Social Security Administration. There are so many twists in the system. Even something as simple as putting in what date you want your benefits to start is extremely complicated if you don’t know all the information.”

 Olson recalled the story of one woman who didn’t realize she was eligible for $700 a month more in benefits because she had been married 40 years earlier. 

“These are people that are facing end-of-life issues, they are destitute and they aren’t getting the benefits they need,” she said. “That’s a travesty in my opinion.” 

Olson said that SSA supervisors are poorly trained.

 “There’s no quality control or accountability any more,” she said. “Back 10 or 20 years ago, we were focused on customer service. You couldn’t be rude with somebody. It’s all different now. The SSA needs a look, like the Department of Veterans Affairs got. It’s time to look into it, because the same things are going on.”

OIG Report On Obtaining Medical Records -- And How Much Does It Cost To Review Disability Claims

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued an audit report with the title Completeness of the Social Security Administration's Disability Claims Files. The report found that Social Security is not obtaining all medical records on claimants at the initial and reconsideration levels, mostly because medical providers don't always respond to requests for records or because the claimants failed to inform Social Security of all their medical sources. If you think that claimants are failing to tell Social Security of some of their medical sources for some devious reason, you lack experience with Social Security disability claimants. Virtually always the problem is forgetfulness and confusion. Medical treatment histories can get complicated when you're sick. You get referred to multiple specialists and you forget about some of them. Your brain isn't operating at 100% because of depression. There's rarely a reason for a claimant to even think of concealing any part of their treatment history. 

      The report assumes that medical development is done by at hearing offices after an Administrative Law Judge hearing is requested. In the very old days, more than 30 years ago, that was the case but now, are you kidding me? Hearing offices don't have anything like the staff to do this.

     The report does have this nugget of information on a subject that I don't think I've seen updated in a long time: "For Fiscal Year 2012, SSA reported that it cost the Agency $607 to process an initial DI claim and $463 to process an initial SSI claim, while it cost $2,328 to process a DI case and $1,431 to process an SSI case at the hearing level." I can attribute the lower cost of SSI cases at the initial level to the fact that SSI claimants typically have less access to medical care, which means fewer requests for medical records and less time spent reviewing medical records. The divergence at the hearing level makes no sense to me. On average, SSI files are shorter and take less time to review but the difference isn't that dramatic. I don't know what it is but there has to be some problem with these numbers.

Happy Birthday, Social Security

79 Years old today despite constant warnings from the right that it's doomed to fail!

Effects Of Reduced Staffing At Social Security

A line out the door of a Social Security field office in Hawaii

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recently issued a report on the effects of field office hour reduction at the agency. The report shows:

• Many members of the public are unaware of the field office hour cutbacks. People regularly arrive at field offices that have closed for the day. Social Secuirty isn't doing a good job of communicating office hours and non-Social Security websites often contain misinformation on field office hours.
• Field office managers report that reduced hours allow staff to attend training and staff meetings as well as work on their workloads, particularly complex cases.
• Field office managers told OIG that the reduction in office hours did not reduce the number of visitors served. It just compressed them into a shorter time period.
• Public wait times at field offices increased from 14.4 minutes in July 2011 to 30.5 minutes in November 2013. This has led to increasing complaints from the public and lines out the door of some field offices. People sometimes wait in the rain.
• Field office appointment calendars are "usually" booked for the entire 60 day time period that the system allows.
• Overtime allotted to the field offices has declined dramatically. This alone has had the effect of reducing field office staffing by over 4,000 work years per year.
• Average staff on duty to handle 800 number calls declined by 833, 17%, between 2010 and 2013.