What do you think about the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing? Who do you believe? Should he be confirmed?
Sep 27, 2018
Rush To Judgment
The Social Security Administration was slow to halt corruption within its own ranks, but has been eager to penalize Kentuckians who were victimized by their crooked, now-imprisoned lawyer, Eric Conn, and the Social Security judge who pocketed Conn’s bribes.
A new round of redetermination hearings has begun for almost 2,000 former Conn clients. The SSA should delay the hearings until the outcome of two things are known:
▪ The discovery earlier this year of thousands of records at Conn’s office that might help clients prove they were disabled when they were approved for benefits — if only they could gain access to their files.
▪ An appeal to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that could entitle almost 800 people to a reconsideration of their benefits terminations. That ruling could guide how the SSA handles Conn clients’ cases in the future.
The Kentucky Bar Association, whose actions during the Conn saga are almost as puzzling as those of the SSA, continues to disappoint. First the KBA was slow to discipline Conn and protect the public from his unethical conduct. More recently, the KBA refused to help get the files from his closed law office into clients’ hands.
The KBA has a procedure for distributing records to clients after an attorney dies or is disbarred. The U.S. Justice Department asked the KBA to activate that process and take control of the 6,000 to 8,000 files at Conn’s office in Floyd County.
The KBA refused.
Then, because of what the Justice Department described as the KBA’s “complete abdication of responsibility,” a federal prosecutor asked U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves to appoint a receiver to take charge of the records. The Justice Department recommended former state Supreme Court justice Janet Stumbo for the task.
But because Stumbo is married to attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who has been the leading advocate for Conn’s clients, Reeves instead ordered the government to submit the names of at least three potential receivers. Reeves scheduled an Oct. 10 hearing. ...
Sep 26, 2018
Hearing On Saul Nomination
The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing for October 2, 2018 on the nomination of Andrew Saul to become Commissioner of Social Security. However, this is only for the term ending January 19, 2019.
What bother to confirm him for a term that ends so soon? The reason that comes to mind is that they don't think he can be confirmed for a full term if Democrats win a majority in the Senate in the November election. They want to get him in the job so that he can hold over as Acting Commissioner.
Sep 25, 2018
Where Are You Going To Find The Personnel To Do All Those Face To Face Interviews?
From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):
... Based on a recommendation in our August 2012 review ... SSA [Social Security Administration] implemented MNUP [Medicare Non-Utilization Project] in September 2013. SSA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) exchange data, and CMS identifies Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance beneficiaries who are Medicare enrollees age 90 or older, are in current payment status, have a domestic address, and have not used Medicare Part s A or B for 3 years or longer. [The idea being that they may be dead.] ...
We reviewed a sample of 46 beneficiaries SSA interviewed via telephone during its 2013 MNUP. ...
During its 2013 MNUP, SSA incorrectly concluded via a telephone interview that 5 (11 percent) of our 46 sample beneficiaries were alive when, in fact, these beneficiaries were deceased at the time of its interviews. On average, the beneficiaries had died 12 years before SSA’s 2013 MNUP, but Agency personnel concluded they were alive. As such, we estimate d SSA overpaid 73 deceased beneficiaries about $16.5 million, which included over $5 million SSA paid after it incorrectly concluded these beneficiaries were alive. We also estimated that SSA would pay over $1 million in additional over payments to deceased MNUP beneficiaries over the next 12 months if it does not suspend or terminate their benefits. ...
SSA can strengthen its policy for interviewing MNUP beneficiaries. For example, we believe SSA should conduct face-to-face interviews of all MNUP beneficiaries to establish a baseline of individuals who are alive. By conducting face-to-face interviews, SSA could enhance its ability to ensure MNUP beneficiaries are alive and reduce its risk of individuals who falsely claim to be the legitimate beneficiary via telephone. ...
SSA did not agree to require face-to-face interviews for all MNUP beneficiaries. ...This is one of those OIG reports that assumes that the Social Security Administration has either unlimited staff or zero responsibilities other than reducing overpayments. Of course, you can't overpay someone if you never get around to putting them on benefits to begin with.
Sep 24, 2018
Two Congressional Hearings On September 27
From a press release:
In other Congressional hearing news, the Senate Finance Committee has rescheduled the hearing on the nomination of Gail Ennis to become Inspector General at Social Security for 10:00 the same morning.
House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) announced today that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing titled, “The State of Social Security’s Information Technology,” on Thursday, September 27 at 11:00 AM ...
To deliver services to frontline employees and to the public, the SSA relies on a massive IT infrastructure. The SSA’s systems are housed and supported by two modern data centers and more than 7,000 physical and virtual servers.
However, many of the SSA’s core IT systems and databases are more than 30 years old. Many of these also rely on tens of millions of lines of antiquated programming languages, such as COBOL, FORTRAN, and PowerBuilder. To overhaul its systems, in October 2017, the SSA began a multi-year $691 million IT modernization effort. As part of the FY 2018 Omnibus appropriations bill (P.L. 115-141), Congress appropriated $280 million in dedicated funding.
At the same time, the SSA is in the third year of a second attempt to develop the Disability Case Processing System (DCPS) to replace the legacy case processing systems used at the state-run, federally funded Disability Determination Services. Since the reboot in 2015, DCPS has faced development delays and recently increased its cost estimate for completion of the project by more than 25 percent due to a failure to adequately identify the scope at the outset.
This will be Chairman Johnson’s final hearing as Subcommittee Chairman.Ignore the language about "antiquated programming languages." Those programs actually work. The real issue here is DCPS which isn't working. Unless the agency can find a way to turn DCPS around, it's heading rapidly towards debacle status.
In other Congressional hearing news, the Senate Finance Committee has rescheduled the hearing on the nomination of Gail Ennis to become Inspector General at Social Security for 10:00 the same morning.
Sep 23, 2018
From The Republican Fantasy World
From The Hill:
Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) introduced a bill that addresses many of the [Social Security disability] program’s functional shortfalls. His Making DI Work for All Americans Act of 2018 (H.R. 6352) would also make the program solvent over the long run, setting the stage for a significant payroll tax cut. ...
[T]he bill would add reviews for “outlier” administrative law judges (something that would have applied to a now-imprisoned administrative law judge). And to promote a more equitable determination process, it would subject SSDI judges to a code of ethics similar to those applied to other judges.It would also empower disability applicants by cutting the SSA out of the representative/client relationship. Instead, applicants would be in charge of their own money. ...
In terms of the standards for determining who’s eligible for benefits, the bill would require the SSA to update the archaic list of jobs that exist in the national economy ...
The bill seeks to improve return-to-work rates by having the SSA conduct more frequent and more comprehensive continuing disability reviews, using the most appropriate standards available to determine continued disability status.Finally, the bill would help restore the program to its original goal of preventing poverty without tapping the regular Social Security trust fund. To this end, it establishes a flat, anti-poverty benefit for all new SSDI beneficiaries. ...By the way, Rokita isn't running for re-election in the House of Representatives. Instead, he's running for the Senate. An old poll showed him running way behind incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Sep 22, 2018
Identity Theft Change
From some television station that wants to be known as "ABC15":
All Jill Carlon wanted was a new Social Security number for her daughter. The girl was the victim of ongoing identity theft problems. For seven years, Carlon said the Social Security Administration's Phoenix office denied her requests, even after Carlon changed the girl's name on advice from a Social Security caseworker.
In April, ABC15 aired the story of Carlon's daughter and the fight to clear the credit history attached to her Social Security number even though she was just 14 years old. Two days later, Carlon said, the Social Security Administration called her and offered to issue the child a new number.
The story caught the attention of Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D) 9th District. Sinema had recently introduced a bill that would streamline the Social Security verification process for obtaining credit, making it harder for people to commit synthetic identity theft.
The bill eventually passed and was signed into law by President Trump. After seeing Carlon's story, Sinema sent a letter to the Social Security commissioner. ...
I think that Social Security's attitude may be: Your problem is with credit reporting agencies who are reporting phony information. Why are you asking us to solve the problem? Why is it easier for Social Security to solve the problem than the credit reporting agencies?Sinema said the agency has now instructed all of its local offices to never advise someone to change their name in order to get a replacement number. Also, Sinema said regional experts are now assigned to provide guidance to local offices and caseworkers with complex cases. Also, she said caseworkers will have more leeway in determining when a new number is warranted. ...
Sep 21, 2018
Glad The Pigeon Is OK
From the Washington Post:
A woman who yelled at Social Security Administration workers, hit a security guard in the head with her fanny pack that had a small pigeon inside and then pulled a knife on him has been arrested and charged in Northern Virginia. ...
The pigeon was taken to a local animal shelter and was not harmed, officials said. No one was hurt during the incident. ...
The pigeon will be “returned to the wild after the investigation is complete,” according to a police statement. ...
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