An Unexpected Result

     From Correlation Patterns between Primary and Secondary Diagnosis Codes in the Social Security Disability Programs, Social Security Administration, Office of Retirement and Disability Policy, ORES Working paper 113:

... [D]isorders of the back and affective/mood disorders are by far the two most common impairments overall, together accounting for a disproportionately high share of the diagnoses (32.4% combined ... [T]he estimated correlation between the two diagnoses is small, but it is both negative and statistically significant (a −0.062 posterior mean with a t-statistic of −10.5). This finding appears to conflict with a popular perception: that affective/mood impairments and disorders of the back are two relatively “subjective” medical diagnoses with a “suspiciously” high degree of association. ...

Fresno's Hearing Backlog

     Fresno has the longest backlog of claimants awaiting a hearing on their Social Security disability claim in California. The local paper is noticing.

Your Move, Social Security

     I wrote this back in January in response to the upcoming oral argument in Lucia v. SEC, on the issue of Administrative Law Judge constitutionality:

There is an urgent need for at least the Acting Commissioner of Social Security to issue an order appointing each of the current ALJs and ratifying any actions they may have previously taken. The SEC has long since done this. The Department of Labor did it this week. I think it would be far safer if the President were to issue such an order. The Constitution talks only of department heads having the power to appoint inferior officers. SSA isn't a department. Yes, there's a reasonable argument that the framers of the Constitution were using the word "department" in a more generic way than it is currently used in the federal government; that they meant something more like "agency." Maybe the courts will buy that but maybe doesn't seem good enough to me with so much at stake. We need to move to Defcon 1 on this.

     Social Security didn't need me to tell them this. I'm virtually certain their in-house attorneys were saying the same thing. They may have been getting the same advice from the Department of Justice. However, they did nothing. Perhaps the problem was the lack of a proper acting Commissioner. Maybe they asked the President to do something or tell them what to do and he didn't. You may have noticed that the Trump White House isn't a well-oiled governing machine. Who knows what happened internally at Social Security? (If you're an insider who knows, I'd be interested in hearing from you.) In any case, they did nothing.
     How long is it going to take Social Security to respond to the Lucia decision? Will their response just be wishing and hoping that the Supreme Court ultimately draws a distinction between SEC ALJs and SSA ALJs? They might but I wouldn't bet on it.
     At the absolute least, we need for the President to sign an order appointing each of Social Security's current ALJs and ratifying their actions to this point. We need at least a backup plan for immediately converting Social Security's ALJs to some other job title where they can be fired at will. Perhaps, we need to go to that forthwith.
     I'd very much prefer to keep independent ALJs who are hired in much the same way as before and who can only be removed with great difficulty but a situation where Social Security has to redo every hearing held over a several year time period while it's in the middle of hiring new people to hold hearings would be an unimaginable catastrophe. Non-ALJ hearing officers wouldn't be the end of the world.
     By the way, the same problem exists with the Administrative Appeals Judges at the Appeals Council. They're civil service too.
     Also, this problem won't wait until a new Commissioner is confirmed. I don't know when a confirmation hearing is coming up. I don't know what the chances are that Mr. Saul will be confirmed. There are certainly reasons for Senators of both parties to be concerned about him.

OMB Proposals For Social Security

     From the Social Security part of government reorganization plan (page 127) recently issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House:

Eliminate In-Kind Support and Maintenance and the Holding Out Policy for SSI 
This proposal simplifies administration of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and reduces improper payments. The proposal eliminates the counting of In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) in lieu of a flat rate benefit reduction for adults living with other adults. The proposal also ends the intrusive and burdensome “holding out” policy, which currently reduces benefits for couples that present themselves as married to the community. 

Eliminate Services to Claimant Representatives 
This proposal would eliminate the Federal Government as the middleman in the relationship between applicants and the representatives they voluntarily hire. It would eliminate administration of fee agreements, fee petitions, and claimant representative travel. The current workload is expensive, error prone, and not SSA’s core mission. In FY 2016, SSA spent about $122 million on the activity, but collected only about $30 million (due to a statutory fee cap) to reimburse the trust funds. The $30 million collected is not currently part of SSA’s administrative resources. ... 

Eliminate SSI Dedicated Accounts 
This proposal facilitates financial independence by eliminating dedicated accounts for past-due benefits to SSI youth recipients. It also reduces the administrative burden of monitoring expenses from dedicated accounts. ... 

Additional Footprint Reduction 
SSA continues to find ways to increase real property efficiency and reduce the size of its real property portfolio. SSA will continue to co-locate offices, consolidate space while merging components, and ensure space savings when implementing telework.

     Note that none of this other than the "Footprint Reduction" can be implemented without legislation and that's not likely to happen and closing offices is certainly unpopular.

Delays In South Jersey

     The South Jersey Times isn't happy with the lengthy delays in processing Social Security disability claims:

Between the poles of allowing fraudulent Social Security disability applications to proceed unfettered, and holding up benefits from the deserving during an excruciatingly long process, there must be a "sweet spot" for regional Social Security Administration offices.

Whatever is going on, the South Jersey office is not hitting that sweet spot. ...

Average waits for a decision there are, stunningly, the third longest among the nation's 168 offices. ...

So why isn't this being treated by Congress or the public as a scandal ... ? ... [T]here's that little twinge of concern within most of us that injured, working-age non-veterans who ask for government benefit checks might really be trying to pull one over on Uncle Sam.

It happens, of course. We love watching videos of "injured" middle-aged guys who say they can't work, working the dance floor or shooting hoops in the driveway.

The Supplemental Security Income/disability process, which can result in multiple denials until someone finally the hires "right" lawyer, creates even more suspicion. For years, SSI payments were derisively known in some down-and-out areas as "crazy checks," obtained -- not always honestly -- by citing psychological disorders.

Large-scale commercial fraud, like the $550 million conviction of a Kentucky country lawyer and a plea from his administrative law-judge accomplice, requires monitoring of waves of unusually easy benefit approvals from the same jurisdiction. But how hard is it to separate these odd patterns from individual cases with no apparent irregularities? ...

SEC ALJs Unconstitutional

     The Supreme Court decision in Lucia v. SEC is out. ALJs, at least at the SEC, have been found unconstitutional. The decision leaves wide open the question of whether Social Security ALJs are constitutional. Social Security is not discussed at all in the opinion. You can find a distinction if you want in the fact that SEC ALJs hear adversary adjudications but I don't know if that's going to be enough.
     There's going to be an eruption of litigation concerning ALJs at every agency that employs them. Indeed, there will also be litigation over non-ALJ adjudicators across the federal government, including Social Security -- think Administrative Appeals Judges at Social Security's Appeals Council.
     We might wish that Social Security would defend the constitutionality of its ALJs but that is far from certain. The Trump Administration may have more general aims and Social Security ALJs may get caught in the crossfire.
     This is a seminal moment in the history of administrative law in this country.

Paying Bounties

     From an Emergency Message that the Social Security Administration (SSA) released yesterday:

... On July 2, 2018, SSA will mail a one-time advance notice to participating correctional and mental health reporters and facilities to inform them of a recent legislative change to Title XVI incentive payments. ...

Social Security Act requires that the institution enter into a written agreement with SSA. ... 

Beginning August 09, 2018, the legislation effective date, the Prisoner Update Processing System (PUPS) will pay incentives using the new Title XVI incentive payment rules for inmate admission information that result in the suspension of monthly benefits to our SSI recipients. The new Title XVI incentive payment rules provide the following: 

For every Title XVI recipient we suspend due to the inmate information provided, we will pay the institution:

• $400 for information received within 15 days of the confinement; or
• $200 for information received after 15 days but within 90 days after confinement. 

We will continue to pay for inmate information for our Social Security beneficiaries as we normally do under our current incentive payment law: 

For every Title II beneficiary we suspend due to the inmate information provided, we will pay the institution:

• $400 for information received within 30 days of the confinement; or
• $200 for information received after 30 days but within 90 days after confinement. ...

Disability Claims Decrease

     From the New York Times:

The number of Americans seeking Social Security disability benefits is plunging, a startling reversal of a decades-old trend that threatened the program’s solvency. It is the latest evidence of a stronger economy pulling people back into the job market or preventing workers from being sidelined in the first place.

The drop is so significant that the agency has revised its estimates of how long the program will continue to be financially secure. This month, the government announced that the program would not run out of money until 2032, four years later than its previous estimate last year. Two years ago, the government had warned that the funds might be depleted by 2023.

In addition to stronger economic growth, the drop reflects newly tightened standards for eligibility and the increasing number of baby boomers who are leaving the program because they have become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare. ...