Astrue Not A Fan Of Obamacare

     I was wondering what Michael Astrue, the most recent Commissioner of Social Security, was up to. I found an opinion piece that he had done in May for The Weekly Standard, a right wing publication, on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which he and many others call Obamacare. I won't bore you with the details of Astrue's piece. I'll just list a few of the words he used and you can infer the rest:

• Self-preservation
• Waste
• Fraud
• Abuse
• Criminal
• Wreckage
• Massive
• Failure
• Mislead
• Stonewall
• Failures
• Reckless

     Astrue was a Massachusetts resident at the time that state implemented a health care plan devised by its Republican governor, Mitt Romney. Astrue was active in Massachusetts politics at the time. I can't find any record of him publicly criticizing Romney's plan. The Affordable Care Act was modeled after Romney's plan. It's no exaggeration to say that Obamacare is Romneycare writ large. If you hate the Affordable Care Act, you should have hated Romney's healthcare plan too.

Law Firm Agrees To Represent Several Hundred Former Clients Of Eric Conn

     Morgan and Morgan, a law firm, has agreed to represent "several hundred" of the nearly 1,500 former clients of Eric Conn who may be losing their Social Security disability benefits. Morgan and Morgan appears to be based in Florida but has offices in Kentucky.

New Regs On Social Security Number Applications

     The Social Security Administration has adopted new regulations on Social Security number applications to allow for electronic applications.

Jump On The Bandwagon

Interesting Tweet

Mike Conrad ‏@mikeconrad1 5h5 hours ago

Social Security projected to hit 100 year mark in good shape. This will also mark 100 years of opponents' constant claims of impending doom.

Is PEBES Worth The Cost?

     The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has issued a report asking "Does the Social Security 'Statement' Add Value"? The Social Security "Statement" they're talking about is what the agency calls the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES). 

     Most people say they remember receiving PEBES and found the information helpful. However, there is little evidence that PEBES affects claiming behavior and there's little evidence that people remember the amount they will receive when they retire. See the chart below.

     For what it's worth, my clients often ask how much they'll receive a month if their disability claim is approved. I seldom have easy access to this information until close to the hearing. When I'm asked this question, I ask the client if they remember receiving the PEBES -- describing it in a way such that they'll understand what I'm talking about. They generally remember receiving it and say they have saved it. I tell them that the PEBES tells the approximate amount that their disability benefit will be. They're always surprised to hear this.

The "Testing" Goes On Without End

     Social Security is once again extending the "testing" of the use of a single decision maker and the elimination of reconsideration. This testing has been going on for many years. Everyone knows they both work. However, the single decision maker system results in a really tiny increase in the number of disability claims approved so it can't go forward and eliminating reconsideration funnels more cases to hearings before Administrative Law Judges which would increase backlogs at that level so it can't go forward either. So Social Security just keeps extending the "testing" indefinitely.

Social Security Not Doing Data Match With Federal Workers Comp

     The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has done a study on whether Social Security is properly reducing Disability Insurance Benefits by workers compensation benefits paid to former federal employees and found problems. GAO found that the agency was not detecting 13% of the cases where there should have been an offset and that there were probably more cases but GAO could not say for sure due to limitations in Social Security's data. The underlying cause of this problem is Social Security's failure to do a data match with federal workers compensation records. Social Security has felt that such a match would not be cost effective. I was under the impression that the agency was already doing data matches with state workers compensation records. I don't understand why they wouldn't do the same with the federal workers compensation records.