Still Missing The Fee Payment Stats

     Back in April I posted the news that Social Security had taken down its website where it posted the stats on payments of fees to attorneys and others who represent claimants before the agency. Soon thereafter the website reappeared.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the problem. Now, they're stopped updating the stats. Nothing has been posted since the March stats. In the past, the website was updated in the first week of each month.

More On DDS Backlogs

     I had posted recently about the increasing backlogs I was seeing on Social Security disability claims at the initial and reconsideration levels. A friend was able to find the data from North Carolina, where I practice, and put it into a chart.

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     You can see why I would be concerned.
     My friend also charted the nationwide data but it doesn't paint the same picture:

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     Don't think that this means there's not a growing backlog problem at the initial and reconsideration levels nationally. The number of disability claims filed has gone down dramatically. With the number of claims filed having gone down dramatically, you would expect to see dramatic reductions in the number of cases pending in the backlog. That hasn't happened. The only way the cases pending holds steady is if the time it's taking to get initial and reconsideration determinations is increasing. It's not happening nationwide so dramatically as in North Carolina but it's happening.

eCBSV Coming

     From a notice posted in the Federal Register by the Social Security Administration (footnotes omitted):

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is announcing the initial enrollment period for a new electronic Consent Based Social Security Number (SSN) Verification (eCBSV) service. SSA will roll out the service to a limited number of users in June 2020, and plans on expanding the number of users within six months of the initial rollout. ... 

Section 215 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (the Banking Bill) directs SSA to modify or develop a database for accepting and comparing fraud protection data provided electronically by a permitted entity. In response to this statutory directive, SSA is creating eCBSV, a fee-based Social Security number (SSN) verification service. eCBSV will allow permitted entities to verify an individual's SSN based on the SSN holder's signed consent. ...

Washington Post On Proposed Regs On Inability To Speak English

     The Washington Post has an article out on the proposal to eliminate consideration of inability to speak English in determining disability under Social Security's grid regulations.

     I don't see why anyone would think that English proficiency has no effect on one's ability to hold down a job. Sure, people who can't speak English hold down jobs in the U.S. but they can't be cashiers or bank tellers or bus drivers. Even in Puerto Rico, you can't work in the tourism industry or many other jobs if you can't speak English. Also, there are far, far more job opportunities for those who only speak Spanish than there are for those who only speak Russian or Yoruba or Greek.

     One thing that needs to be said about this proposal, however, is that it won't affect that many people. The regulations in question matter in only a few borderline cases.

     It's rich that the Trump Administration is protesting criticism of this proposal by saying it isn't intended to be anti-immigrant. We all know why this proposal is coming forward during the Trump Administration.

The Trump Administration Never Ceases To Amaze

     From The Hill:

President Trump has quietly appointed his Social Security Administration (SSA) Inspector General to also oversee a much different agency: the Interior Department. 

On May 28 Gail Ennis began her second job overseeing the Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), a role she will keep for the foreseeable future, an OIG office source confirmed to The Hill.

The Trump administration is still awaiting the confirmation of Mark Greenblatt, the former Commerce Department Inspector General (IG), to formally head the Interior’s OIG office. ...

Ennis is the second Trump political appointee who the administration has attempted to put in the Interior OIG role.

Earlier this year, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced to staff that Assistant HUD Secretary Suzanne Tufts would replace Kendall. Because Tufts had been previously confirmed by the Senate, she would not have to go through another confirmation process for the role. 

However, following backlash to that announcement, the Interior Department later said the announcement was a misunderstanding and Carson reversed the move. Tufts resigned not long after. ...

     There's the obvious problem here of one person trying to do two jobs but there's the less obvious problem that even though the Inspectors General are appointed by the President, they're supposed to act in a non-partisan way. This indicates to me that Ennis is involved with the White House more than I think appropriate.

The Kentucky Bar Association's Shameful Role In The Eric Conn Debacle

     There is one part of the debacle left behind by Eric Conn that has received little attention and that is the irresponsible behavior of the Kentucky Bar Association (KBA). Ned Pillersdorf has written an op ed for the Louisville Courier Journal on this aspect of the case.

     After Social Security started its highly dubious effort to cut off benefits for thousands of Conn's former clients you would expect that the KBA would try to organize or at least assist pro bono legal representation for the claimants involved but the KBA did nothing. While individual Kentucky attorneys, including most prominently Ned Pillersdorf, did pro bono work to help those affected, most of the representation of Conn's former clients has been done by out of state attorneys in an effort organized by AppalReD Legal Aid.  The KBA has been nowhere to be seen while this effort has been going on.

     The biggest failing by the KBA has been its refusal to appoint a receiver for the files that Conn had on his clients. Yes, Conn did keep files. I've seen some. They weren't nearly as disorganized as I expected. Yes, he did request some medical records and certainly received some others from clients. However, his office did not always file medical records they received with Social Security. It wasn't that the records not submitted were harmful to the cases. Conn's office just never got around to submitting them. Getting access to Conn's files was an obvious step in representing his former clients. Some of the doctors involved are no longer in practice. Some of the claimants have forgotten which doctors they saw. I am representing one of Conn's former clients who is now in the early stages of Alzheimer's but you don't have to have dementia to have forgotten some of the details of your medical treatment history. Once it became clear that there were client files left behind by Conn, you would expect that the KBA would step in to appoint a receiver for the files. since their own rules give them this authority. Occasionally, an attorney gets arrested or suddenly dies. That's why there are rules for this sort of thing in Kentucky and other states. As the agency that regulates Kentucky attorneys you would expect the KBA to step up to help out with Conn's files but to the amazement and dismay of everyone involved, including the U.S. Department of Justice and federal judges, the KBA refused to do anything.

     I hate to be critical of another state's bar but I cannot comprehend the KBA's behavior. I find it shameful. I would be up in arms about it if the the KBA's counterpart in North Carolina where I practice behaved like this but I cannot imagine that happening.

Medicare Screwup At SSA Affects 250,000 People

     From National Public Radio:

A quarter of a million Medicare beneficiaries may be receiving bills for as many as five months of premiums they thought they had already paid.  ...

Because of what the Social Security Administration calls "a processing error" in January, it did not deduct premiums from some seniors' Social Security checks and it didn't pay the insurance plans, according to the agency's "frequently asked questions" page on its website.

The problem applies to private drug policies and Medicare Advantage plans that provide both medical and drug coverage and that substitute for traditional government-run Medicare.

Some people will discover they must find the money to pay the plans. Others may find their plans canceled. Medicare officials say approximately 250,000 people are affected. ...

There's Also The Problem That They May Not Have The Money To Put Away

     From the New York Times:

New state-based accounts that let disabled people work and save money without risking the loss of government aid are slowly catching on. But advocates say millions more people with disabilities could be taking advantage of the accounts.

Forty-one states and Washington, D.C., now offer the accounts, which first became available in 2016. The tax-free accounts, known as ABLE accounts, are named after the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, the 2014 law that created them. ...

But just a tiny fraction of people eligible for the accounts are using them so far.

More than 40,000 ABLE accounts were open by the end of March, with combined balances of about $225 million, said Michael Morris, executive director of the National Disability Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group. But the institute estimates that as many as eight million people are eligible under current rules, which limit the accounts to people who became disabled before age 26. ...

Part of the challenge in fostering more growth is that ABLE accounts have nuanced rules, and states have limited budgets to promote the accounts, said JJ Hanley, director of the Illinois ABLE program. When people do hear about the accounts, she said, they are often skeptical that opening one truly won’t jeopardize their benefits. ...

     ABLE was always about helping well to do parents put away money to help their disabled offspring without jeopardizing their SSI and Medicaid. Most families just don't have the money to put away and there's little to be done about that.
     My thought all along is that ABLE is OK but that we need reforms to remove some of the harshness in the SSI and Medicaid income and resources rules. That would help far, far more people and is long overdue. ABLE targeted a small amount of relief from these rules at a few relatively well off people while ignoring the large number of people who suffer under antiquated income and resource limits.