Growing Opioid Issue

     From Health Day:

A growing number of Americans on work disability chronically use powerful prescription painkillers, according to a new study.

Researchers found that between 2007 and 2011, about 44 percent of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits were prescribed narcotic painkillers each year. And the percentage using the drugs long-term rose from 21 percent in 2007 to 23 percent in 2011. ...

The findings, reported in the September issue of the journal Medical Care, aren't surprising, [a researcher] noted. Nationwide, prescriptions for narcotic painkillers -- also known as opioids -- surged 300 percent after 1999, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ...

"In the short term, people get some relief," said Dr. Eric Collins, physician-in-chief at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Conn., which specializes in psychiatric and addiction treatment.

"But there's no good evidence that long-term use is effective for non-cancer pain," Collins said. ...

The truth is, Meara said, treating chronic pain is difficult. Common problems such as low back pain have no one-size-fits-all therapy, but a number of non-drug options exist, such as exercise, over-the-counter pain medications, acupuncture and biofeedback.

     To be clear here, the dispute is over whether the expanded use of opioids that has been seen over the last 20 years or so is a problem or simply necessary treatment for chronic pain. No one is suggesting that those on Social Security disability benefits abuse opioids any more than any other group. A very significant percentage of those on Social Security disability benefits suffer from conditions which produce chronic, severe pain. It's a question of how you treat that pain.
     I've long noted that anyone experiencing severe pain regards their pain as an emergency which requires urgent treatment. However, when it's someone else's pain, especially if that person is a stranger, people regard pain as merely "subjective" and possibly feigned. If you want additional restrictions on prescriptions of opioids, remember that someday, perhaps soon, you may be in severe pain and desperate for relief.

This Problem Will Just Get Worse

     From CBS:

Thousands of Social Security beneficiaries have become victims of identity thieves who have hacked into their accounts and stolen millions of dollars in desperately needed benefits.

69-year-old Carole Folkes is one of them. For seven years her $354 Social Security check was directly deposited into her bank account. Then last June, she said, “The Social Security check wasn’t there and I was baffled.”

Folkes called Social Security and was told her money was sent to a different bank and she was supposedly sent a debit card to collect it. ...

Folkes, who is confined to a wheelchair, said she had to make three trips to her Social Security office to try and straighten it out. In the weeks it took to get a replacement check, Folkes got an eviction notice from her building manager because she did not have enough money to pay the rent. ...

Most often the scammers are hard to track because they operate from different countries. ...

The Inspector General’s office reported this year on an audit that identified 23,192 beneficiaries who did not receive $28.3 million in benefits between Sept. 2011 and June 2012 due to unauthorized direct deposit changes. Of that, $17.4 million has not been recovered. Through August 2014, 38,585 allegations of direct deposit fraud have been made by beneficiaries.

Guilty Plea In New York Case

     From the New York Times:

A former New York City police officer accused of playing a major role in a scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration pleaded guilty on Wednesday and agreed to testify against his co-defendants.

Prosecutors said that the former officer, Joseph Esposito, was one of four people who concocted a scheme that bilked the federal government out of more than $27 million. ...

Under the terms of the agreement, if his testimony is satisfactory, he will be allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree grand larceny and prosecutors will recommend a sentence of one and a half to four and a half years in prison. ...

Mr. Esposito and Mr. Hale, court papers say, referred most of the applicants to two psychiatrists for treatment and to establish a year’s worth of medical records. On several telephone calls recorded by the authorities, Mr. Esposito was captured coaching applicants on how to mimic the symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress when being examined by doctors. ...

It was also Mr. Esposito’s job, court papers say, to collect a large cash fee from the applicants — usually more than $28,000 per person — after they received the first lump-sum check from the government, prosecutors said. Mr. Esposito would bring the money to Mr. Hale’s house, where it would be split among the four men, according to court papers.

Obamacare May Be Reducing Number Of Disability Claims In Arkansas

     From Modern Healthcare:

The number of Arkansas residents signing up for federal disability benefits has dropped 19% since October 2013, which some state officials are attributing to expanded Medicaid eligibility....

Arkansas is providing subsidies to individuals with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty threshold to purchase private health plans through the exchange, a model of expansion that several other Republican-controlled states are following. More than 190,000 Arkansas residents qualified for the expanded coverage through the end of July.  

State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, a Republican who was one of the architects of the “private option” plan, said that he and his colleagues had hoped that expanding Medicaid would reduce the disability rolls. “It's too early to say with any certainty that that's the case,” Dismang said. “I think that there's an indication that there has been an impact.”

Union Schedules Rally To Oppose Field Office Cuts

     From a press release issued by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents most employees of the Social Security Administration:

Hundreds of union activists from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) will rally at the Minneapolis Social Security Field Office Wednesday, Aug. 27 to shed light on the Social Security Administration’s plan to close virtually every field office in Minnesota and across the country ...
When: 3:00 p.m. CDT Wednesday, August 27
Where: Minneapolis SSA Field Office; 1811 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, Minn.
Speakers:

• AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr.
• House Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer
• Senator Al Franken (Invited)
• U.S. Representative Rick Nolan
• U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (Invited)
• U.S. Representative Betty McCollum (Invited)
• Minneapolis Social Security Beneficiary Marie Milsten-Fiedler
• Labor activists and Social Security employees who provide vital public services

Initial And Reconsideration Allowance Rates

This is from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) which got it, I'm sure, from the Social Security Administration.

Top Ten List

     Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute posts her list of top ten myths about Social Security.

The Irony

Maybe someday we'll laugh at the irony — SSA cuts staff and office hours, just as the Boomers arrive and workload skyrockets.

--Andy Landis, the author of a book on Social Security, quoted in USA Today