VA Policy On Charging For Medical Records?

     I request lots of records on my Social Security disability clients. It's a major part of what I do. I'm curious. What's the policy or practice of the Department of Veterans Affairs on charging for copies of medical records on their patients? The VA hospital in Durham, NC charges for records but is very slow in responding to requests for those records. The VA hospital in Fayetteville, NC doesn't charge and is fairly prompt in responding to requests for records. What's going on elsewhere?

OIG Wants Social Security To Keep Trying To Collect Those 50 Year Old Debts

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has done a study on the agency's practice of collecting ancient debts -- many over thirty years old and some as old as fifty years -- via offsets of tax refunds. OIG doesn't see any problem with this and basically urges the agency to keep doing it, regardless of the age of the debt. 

     The report says that "for all debts, SSA’s beneficiary records contained detailed information to establish how and when the overpayment occurred." Any field office employees want to comment on this statement?

     The lack of a statute of limitations on collection of overpayments by administrative offset is a disgrace in my opinion. This needs to be addressed by Congress.
     Update: The Washington Post is reporting on this issue.

Isn't 19 Years Of Testing Enough?

     The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has released an Issue Brief on the Single Decision Maker Pilot. In the Single Decision Maker (SDM) Pilot a single disability examiner can process a disability claim at the initial or reconsideration levels without having a medical consultant sign off on the determination. The agency has been testing SDM since 1996. So, why has it taken 19 years to test SDM? Is Social Security finally ready to either cancel SDM altogether or make it national? Oddly, neither SSAB nor Social Security seems to have an answer for either question. Probably the reason that Social Security doesn't want to go national with SDM is that it leads to a slight increase in the allowance rate and that's a huge negative as far as Social Security and SSAB are concerned. The reason that the SDM Pilot isn't cancelled is that SDM decreases processing time which is a positive. So it looks as if we'll just continue with the SDM Pilot indefinitely.

The Great Recession Caused Big Problems For Social Security Disability But Not What You Think

     Kathy Ruffing, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, has an interesting observation. The Great Recession hurt Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund badly but not in the way people think. The problem wasn't that the Great Recession caused an increase in benefit payments. Any effects on that side were minor. The problem has been that the Great Recession caused a dramatic decrease in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's income. If the Great Recession hadn't occurred, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's income and spending would be in rough balance.

What Data Do You Want To See?

     Social Security has a webpage where anyone can submit their ideas for data sets that the agency should make available online. Submit your own ideas. Here are the ideas I submitted:

• Productivity, backlog and allowance rates for each state DDS
• Percent of claimants with attorney or other representation
• EAJA fees paid
• Appeals Council productivity and backlog
• Percent of claimants who are rejecting video hearings
• Number of attorney-advisor decisions issued
• Number of on the record reversals issued by ALJs
• Processing time data for each payment centers
• Average speed of answer and agent busy rate for 800 number service
• Average speed of answer and agent busy rate for field office telephone lines

An Alabama Textbook From The 1970s On "social security"

"Republicans Will Do ... Something"

     Arthur Delaney gives a good summary of yesterday's hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee. His title tells the story: The Social Security Disability Program's In Trouble And Republicans Will Do... Something.
     By the way, note that Delaney has been influenced by the Republican drumbeat insisting that somehow Social Security "liberalized" disability back in the 1980s. That's bull. That supposed "liberalization" was signed into law by the sainted Ronald Reagan. I don't think you could get one vote in Congress today for overturning even one aspect of that supposed "liberalization."

There's No Magic Bullet

     From the written testimony of Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, given to the House Ways and Means Committee today:

It’s worth testing some promising changes to DI [Disability Insurance] through carefully designed demonstration projects, but those demonstrations won’t yield quick answers. Congress should also consider other ways of rewarding work for people with impairments, such as expanding refundable tax credits for low-wage workers. But Congress should not expect a magic bullet that will simultaneously trim costs, make beneficiaries better off, and avert the need to replenish the DI trust fund in 2016 and beyond. Beneficiaries will face a 20 percent benefit cut if Congress does not act soon to replenish the trust fund.

     None of the other witness written statements say anything that contradicted Van de Water's statement.
     By the way, let me repeat what I said earlier, the House Ways and Means Committtee's website is a mess. It's almost impossible to find anything. I've been looking at websites of various Congressional committees for years and I've never seen anything like this. You think I'm exaggerating? I didn't give a link to the witness statements at today's hearing. Here's a link to the Homepage for the Committee. The witness statements are there somewhere but try finding them.