ALJ Maher Kills Himself After Armed Standoff With Police

     From Heavy.com:

A Miami federal judge [employed by the Social Security Administration], already under investigation, armed and barricaded in his home with family members as possible hostages surrounded by tactical police has reportedly shot and killed himself, a veteran Miami crime journalist reported.

Federal administrative law judge Timothy Maher was arrested last week for threatening the mother of his child with a rifle and was this week alleged to have threatened a co-worker in a federal building.  ...

It was reported that police negoiators could be heard saying, “Anybody living or inside the residence at 23985, if you can hear me, all I need you to do is turn some lights on and off anywhere in your house so my team can see that you’re OK.”

There were conflicting reports of who was inside the home, but reports said police could be heard calling out to the house through a megaphone for a 13-year-old girl believed to be inside be released. ...

ALJ Makes The Big Time

@_FloridaMan

     Social Security's Administrative Law Judge Thomas Mayer, who's been discussed here a good bit lately, has really made the big time. He's the topic of a @_FloridaMan tweet! 

     If you're not familiar with @_FloridaMan, well, you should be.

Miami Hearing Office Closed

ALJ Maher Being Arraigned

     From the Miami Herald:

A downtown Miami federal office remained closed Wednesday as federal agents investigated whether a  judge who handles disability cases threatened a co-worker, according to a law-enforcement source familiar with the incident.

The suspected threat is believed to have come from Timothy Maher [an Administrative Law Judge], who was arrested last week and accused of threatening his ex-girlfriend with a rifle at his home in El Portal. The threat was made Tuesday against one of his colleagues at the Social Security Administration office, 333 S. Miami Ave., where Maher normally works reviewing social-security disability claims.

The decision to close the office, according to sources, was made by Federal Protective Services, a branch of U.S. Homeland Security, which provides armed security for U.S. government buildings. FPS did not notify Miami or Miami-Dade police, which usually work in coordination with law enforcement from Homeland Security. ...

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article217127315.html#storylink=cpy

We Can't Answer Our Phones But We're Up To Date In Cutting People Off Benefits

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 12:50 PM
Subject: Achievement of Medical CDR Currency

A Message To All SSA and DDS Employees  

Subject: Achievement of Medical CDR Currency

I am pleased to announce that in August 2018, we achieved currency with the release of all available medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDR) for fiscal year 2018.  This is a major achievement as it is the first time we’ve reached this milestone since 2002, and only the second time in Social Security history!

From the Disability Determination Services and their staff, to the Office of Budget and Office of Systems, and the regional and field offices across the country, reaching this monumental achievement truly was a team effort.  Our pledge going forward will be to maintain currency with the CDR workload, which is an important part of our program integrity workloads and our stewardship responsibilities.

As part of our program integrity and stewardship responsibilities, we need to ensure that only those who continue to meet our eligibility requirements for disability receive benefits.  I want to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for helping us stay mission-focused for the public we serve.

Nancy A. Berryhill
Acting Commissioner

Culbertson SCOTUS Oral Argument Set For November 7

     Culbertson v. Berryhill, on whether fees subject to Social Security Act's 25-percent cap include only fees for representation in court or also fees for representation before the agency, is scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court on November 7.

Five Rare Disorders Added To Compassionate Allowance List

     Social Security has added the following new medical conditions to its Compassionate Allowance list: 

• Fibrolamellar Cancer
• Megacystis Microcolon Intestinal Hypoperistalsis Syndrome
• Megalencephaly-Capillary Malformation Syndrome
• Superficial Siderosis of the Central Nervous System
• Tetrasomy 18p 

     These are all rare disorders. It's rare for any compassionate disorder condition to show up in a disability claim. I've yet to see one.

     It always seems like Social Security adds to the compassionate allowance list when they've got a Congressional hearing coming up and they want to show how, uh, "compassionate" they are. I don't know of an upcoming Congressional hearing, however.

Miami ALJ Maher Having Problems

     I recently posted about the arrest of Administrative Law Judge Timothy Robert Maher of Social Security's Miami hearing office on charges of threatening his girlfriend with a gun in the presence of their child. There's more to the story. Police were called to Maher's residence on three consecutive nights after his arrest. Maher also recently got into what sounds like a road rage incident with another driver.

SSA To Launch GitHub Site -- What's That?

     From Healthcare IT News:

The Agency for Health Research and Quality and the Social Security Administration here on Monday announced plans for kicking off challenges to identify technologies that solve specific problems.

SSA Executive Director of Health IT Jude Soundararajan said here at the White House Blue Button 2.0 Developer Conference that in September SSA will launch a GitHub site with its use case for disabilities. And he said that developer contests will follow.

"We get tons of faxes, tons of unstructured data we want to analyze. Look for challenges around that and look for challenges around FHIR for our use case," Soundararajan said. "I'm looking forward to working with the developer community." ...

     Can someone explain this one to me?