Why Do These Regional Differences Persist?

     Social Security has posted an updated dataset giving the average processing time at each of its hearing offices. Here's the list of the offices with the top ten longest processing time, in days:

• San Juan 864
• National Hearing Center Chicago 820
• New York 772
• Buffalo 764
• Bronx 760
• Philadelphia 756
• National Hearing Center Falls Church 755
• Queens 738
• South Jersey 736
• Miami 725

     Note that using the average number may understate the problem. Cases that are quickly dismissed because a request for hearing was filed too late go into that average. The typical case that actually goes to hearing will take longer than the stated average.

     Here's a list of the top ten shortest processing time, again in days:

• Providence 325
• Boston 352
• Houston North 360
• Manchester 375
• Portland, ME 400
• Dallas North 428
• Oklahoma City 431
• Fort Smith 434
• Springfield, MA 434
• Middlesboro 436

     It looks like things are going very nicely in Social Security's Boston Region, which has five of the top ten best offices, while things are going very badly next door in Social Security's New York region, which has six of the top ten worst offices. Why such big differences between regions? I thought that once we had video hearings these differences would go away.

Cage Match Looming In Lucia?

     The National Law Review reports on what it calls a "cage match" possibly looming before the Supreme Court in the Lucia case on the constitutionality of Administrative Law Judges.

NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of the personnel who make disability determinations at the initial and reconsideration levels for Social Security, has posted its Spring 2018 newsletter.

I'm Not Buying It

     Workers comp insurers are trying to dispute the widely held belief that they've been increasingly successful in shifting the costs of workplace injuries on to Social Security and Medicare. I'm not buying it. It's obvious at ground level that they're able to settle cases for vastly less than the true costs of lost wages and future medical care.

Milwaukee Fighting Back

     The controversy over the closing of a Social Security field office in Milwaukee isn't going away.

Why Does Social Security Need To Capture Biometric Data?

     From a contracting notice recently posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) eyetracker software tool that will allow SSA to measure and collect users' eye position and eye movements to expand on the dynamic of our usability and user testing studies. The eye tracking system will increase our capability to capture biometric data that we are currently lacking and allow us to incorporate the biometric layer into our results analysis. In addition to the usability testing, eye tracking system can also be used in market research.

     I'm not the only one who finds this kind of creepy.

Probably Wasting Their Time

     The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee as well as the Chairmen of that Committee's Social Security and Human Resources Subcommittees have written President Trump to urge that he nominate a new Social Security Commissioner.

     I think it will be difficult to find anyone other than a career employee willing to be nominated now. The term of office ends in mid-January 2019. By the time anyone could be confirmed, their term would almost be at an end. Confirmation to a new term thereafter might be difficult, especially if Democrats gain control of the Senate. That's unlikely but not out of the question.

     There's also the problem that Social Security is wildly unpopular with prominent Republicans. It may be difficult to find someone interested in the job who wouldn't be insistent on attacking the benefits programs he or she is supposed to be administering. However, almost no Senate Republicans would want such an unpopular crusade.

     Finally, there's the general problem that few people want to work in Donald Trump's Administration. It's an incoherent mess very possibly based upon near traitorous conduct, not to mention that Trump treats people dreadfully.

     I'd suggest a recess appointment of a caretaker Commissioner. That can be done quickly without confirmation. It's good until the beginning of the next Congress. Of course, doing that would require that Trump have some interest in governing instead of just dispatching absurd tweets in response to Fox and Friends.

Brutal Backlog

     From the Washington Post:

Robert Steers of Southington, Conn., was an Army captain who served in Afghanistan. He also served his country looking for contraband with the Transportation Security Administration.

Now, he’d like to get decent service from the Social Security Administration.
But, as many Americans know, this can be an exasperating experience, filled with endless waits and growing frustration. ...

Steers applied in April 2012 and was denied. To appeal, he requested a hearing with an administrative law judge (ALJ) in May 2013. It took almost two years to be denied again in March 2015. After appealing to federal court, his case was sent back to the administrative law judge in December 2016.

It is now April 2018 — six years after his initial application — and Steers is still waiting to find out if he’ll get the insurance. ...

“I think SSA does not have the staff it needs,” said Iván A. Ramos, Steers’s lawyer in Hartford, Conn. “When you call a hearing office, nobody answers the phone, and when you go to the office you just stand in front of an empty window until someone finally shows up to help you. Many of my clients have trouble paying for food and shelter while they wait for their disability claims to be processed. Seeing what many of my clients and their families have to go through, just to get a hearing, has become the hardest part of my job.” ...

Staffing and service issues have plagued Social Security for years, and President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2019 would make things worse. The disability hearing process can be particularly vexing because there are too few administrative law judges, who hear appeals, and they have too few support staff members. ...