Is This Reasonable?

     Should a medical provider charge a $350 fee for completing paperwork to help a Social Security disability claimant? Remember, Medicare or Medicaid benefits go along with Social Security disability benefits. A patient who loses their Social Security disability appeal may lose medical coverage or be forced onto Medicaid which reimburses providers at a lower rate. Is the $350 fee reasonable? What about filing health care reimbursement forms? Should providers charge separately for doing that? It's not medical care either.

     If you think that attorneys who represent Social Security disability claimants are so wealthy that they should easily be able to absorb fees like this, maybe you ought to ponder this question. Why is it that virtually no one leaves the employment of the Social Security Administration to represent claimants before the agency? If it's lucrative, wouldn't you expect there to be a steady stream of people doing this?

Most Popular Baby Names

     Here's Social Security's list of the most popular baby names for 2017:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Emma
2. Noah	2. Olivia
3. William	3. Ava
4. James	4. Isabella
5. Logan	5. Sophia
6. Benjamin	6. Mia
7. Mason	7. Charlotte
8. Elijah	8. Amelia
9. Oliver	9. Evelyn
10. Jacob	10. Abigail

     Whatever happened to "Charles" as a baby name? Or "John" or "Mary" or "Joseph" or "Elizabeth" or "Michael" or "Catherine"?

Can You Help?

     Can anyone help me interpret this report from the Social Security Bulletin on variation in Social Security disability participation? I know I'm in trouble when I'm trying to interpret something that starts out with this sort of thing:

The variance relationship is given in equation (7):

Var[ln(part)]=Var[ln(disprev)]+Var[ln(partdis)]+2Cov[ln(disprev),ln(partdis)]

     If I had been interested in this sort of thing maybe I would have gone to grad school in my undergraduate major, political science (which, at least at the graduate level, is a lot sciencier than you might think). There are reasons people go to law school and some of them have to do with figuring out what you don't want to do.
     I think this report shows that persons of Hispanic origin and those who live in households where English isn't spoken at home are less likely to be on Social Security disability (take that, Donald Trump!) but there's a lot more in this report that I'm struggling to interpret.

Headcount Holds Steady

      The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated figures for the number of employees at the Social Security Administration:

• December 2017 62,777
• September 2017 62,297
• June 2017 61,592
• March 2017 62,183
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• September 2011 67,136
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733
• September 2008 63,990

Looks Like The Biggest Problem Is A Lack Of Warm Bodies To Get The Work Done

     From Workload Review of the Office of Hearings Operations’ Atlanta and New York Regions, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

The hearing offices in both regions with high average processing times (APT) had below average staffing levels, low morale, and issues with telework, claimant representatives, and the quality of the support staff’s work. Other factors, such as administrative law judge performance issues, difficulty scheduling expert witnesses, and a large number of supplemental hearings/postponements also contributed to high APT. In the New York Region, local office management issues and State filing requirements were also negative factors. In the Atlanta Region, an insufficient number of decision writers and information technology problems were negative factors.

In the New York Region, several interviewees cited their Regional Office as a negative factor that contributed to higher APT and lower productivity. The issues that interviewees cited included Regional Office micromanagement, excessive time and oversight devoted to minor issues, goals not agreeing with real capabilities, negative messaging/tone, and frequent changes implemented with little notice or input. The New York Regional Office generally agreed with our findings but explained that a few offices require closer regional level oversight for a variety of reasons, including inexperienced or under- performing managers, failure to follow established policy and procedures, and employee conduct or performance matters. Some interviewees in the Atlanta Region cited similar issues with their Regional Office, though the feedback was more mixed. ...

One In Ten Field Offices Closed

Demonstrators protesting closure of Arlington, VA field office

     From the Washington Post:

The Social Security Administration plans to close its Arlington field office and one of its Baltimore locations in June, part of a series of shutdowns across the country that activists and political leaders say is causing major difficulties for the elderly, people with disabilities and other beneficiaries.

The agency has closed about 125 of its approximately 1,250 offices since 2000 — a 10 percent reduction, part of what officials describe as a shift to greater use of online services in an era of budget constraints and a growing population of senior citizens.

In addition, all 533 Social Security Administration “contact sites” — locations that serve remote, rural populations on a weekly or monthly basis — have closed, said leaders of the union that represents Social Security employees. ...

A Grace Note

     The final footnote in the opinion of Magistrate Judge Joan Glazer Margolis in Lawson v. Berryhill, 3:17 CV 247 (JGM) (D.Conn.2018):

After having had the great privilege of serving as a U .S. Magistrate Judge for more than thirty-three years and now facing retirement in approximately five weeks, this decision is the last Social Security ruling to be filed by this judicial officer. This Ma gistrate Judge estimates that she has filed at least 350 rulings on Social Security matters, starting with one filed in March 1985, just one month after she began this position. This judicial officer has never lost sight of how critical these Social Security files are to the parties involved, and few other rulings issued in federal court have the profound impact on the parties as these do. 

Starting in August 2002, this Magistrate Judge has had the great assistance of her highly talented career law clerk, Monica Watson Cucchiarelli, in approximately 150 of these Social Security rulings. Ms. Watson’ s contribution to the development of Social Security law in this district has been immeasurable, and there a re few lawyers as knowledgeable, and talented, about these matters than she is. The only reason this Magistrate Judge has remained relatively current with her Social Security docket, which began to soar in 2009  nd continues to do so at a dramatically escalating pace, is due to the diligence, perseverance, and wisdom of Ms. Watson, who consistently ga e up her evenings and weekends to work on these files. The Social Security bar, the District Court, and this judicial officer in particular, owe Ms. Watson their deepest gratitude.

How To Deal With An Overpayment

     So, who should you call when Social Security stops your checks because THEY made a mistake? Your local TV station, of course. You certainly can't expect the agency to resolve the issue or tell you what to do.