New Acting Associate Commissioner For External Affairs

     From a recent announcement:

We are very pleased to announce that Social Security has a new Acting Associate Commissioner for External Affairs.

Robert (Bob) Patterson comes to Social Security with a wealth of experience in communications and public engagement.

He has served as Speechwriter and Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families with the Department of Health and Human Services, and Senior Speechwriter with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Most recently, Bob served as Vice President for Government Relations at the U.S. Business and Industry Council. His background also includes a wide range of experience in the private sector and academia as a policy expert, professor and op-ed contributor.

About $200 Per Case

     From a press release:

David Black Daugherty, 81, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky to an information charging him with two counts of receiving illegal gratuities. Sentencing is set for Aug. 25, 2017. 

Daugherty was an administrative law judge at the Social Security hearing office in Huntington, West Virginia (Huntington Hearing Office) for more than 20 years, where his primary responsibility was to adjudicate disability claims on behalf of the SSA. According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, from November 2004 to April 2011, Daugherty accepted more than $609,000 in cash payments, total, in more than approximately 3,100 cases from Social Security disability lawyer, Eric Christopher Conn, of Pikeville, Kentucky, for awarding disability benefits to claimants represented by Conn. Furthermore, in an effort to conceal the source of these cash payments, Daugherty divided cash deposits into various bank branches and accounts, he admitted.

Daugherty admitted that he sought out Conn’s cases pending with the Huntington Hearing Office, contacted Conn and told him what type of medical evidence to submit in support of disability findings and then awarded benefits to claimants represented by Conn without holding hearings. As a result, Conn ultimately received at least $7.1 million in representative fees from the SSA, and Daugherty further obligated the SSA to pay more than $550 million in lifetime benefits to claimants, according to the plea.

Top Baby Names Of 2016

	Male name	Female name
1	Noah	Emma
2	Liam	Olivia
3	William	Ava
4	Mason	Sophia
5	James	Isabella
6	Benjamin	Mia
7	Jacob	Charlotte
8	Michael	Abigail
9	Elijah	Emily
10	Ethan	Harper

Source: Social Security Administration

An Exit Interview With Carolyn Colvin

     Before leaving office, then Acting Commisioner Carolyn Colvin sat down for an interview with McKinsey and Company, a huge and highly influential consulting company. 

     Colvin has had a long and distinguished career as a public servant. She made the best of a bad funding situation at Social Security. She has a lot to be proud of. However, this interview does not improve my opinion of her. It's crammed with endless Dilbertesque management buzzwords. If you're touting Vision 2025 as a major achievement, one that truly effected change, you've lost touch with reality. Vision 2025 was of no consequence at the time it was issued and has already been forgotten because it was nothing more than vapid generalities.
     I'll say this for her. If she kept a listed landline after becoming Commissioner, I don't know whether to be impressed or just amazed.

A Poll

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Trump Budget To Call For Social Security Disability Cuts

     Roll Call is reporting that the White House budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, which begins on October 1, 2017, will call for cuts in Social Security disability benefits. The cuts are not specified in the article. 

But sources said the budget will include proposals to reduce the cost of the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which is not means-tested. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YV839krT.dpuf

White House officials are crafting a fiscal 2018 budget proposal for President Donald Trump that aims to wipe out the deficit through a combination of robust economic growth, steep cuts in certain means-tested entitlement programs and other savings. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YV839krT.dpuf

White House officials are crafting a fiscal 2018 budget proposal for President Donald Trump that aims to wipe out the deficit through a combination of robust economic growth, steep cuts in certain means-tested entitlement programs and other savings. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YQqJR9St.dpuf

White House officials are crafting a fiscal 2018 budget proposal for President Donald Trump that aims to wipe out the deficit through a combination of robust economic growth, steep cuts in certain means-tested entitlement programs and other savings. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YQqJR9St.dpuf

Social Security Wants Case Processing System For ODAR Pronto

     From a contracting notice posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking a Case Management Software System inclusive of a correspondence system; scheduling system; invoicing system and a provider repository that will move cases along the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review’s (ODAR) business process to the closure of the case. The purpose of this RFI [Request for Information] is to identify potential vendors capable of providing a solution for this Case Management Software System....

The solution must be able to do the following: 

• Be a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product; 
• Be commercially available as of May 31, 2017;  ... 

Responses must be received by 12:00 noon EST on May 17, 2017. ...

     A response by May 17? Sounds like they already know what product they intend to buy. But how will an off the shelf product do everything they want it to do and work with Social Security's other systems?
     I'm probably wrong but what they're describing sounds a lot like the case management systems used by law firms. They're not going to use one of those, are they? One of those wouldn't be this scalable, would it? That wouldn't work with the agency's other systems, would it? But what other type of off the shelf system could it be?

Back To Two Factor Authentication

     In August 2016, Social Security introduced two factor authentication for claimants using its online systems. It was a fiasco. The public hated it. The agency quickly backed away.

     They're not letting that set them back. They're now planning to again require two factor authentication as of June 10. Users will have the choice of receiving the second factor either by text message or e-mail message.

     Will the public find this any more acceptable? Will it actually improve security?