Artificial Intelligence Sought

     From a "Sources Sought" notice posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is conducting market research/sources sought to help determine the availability and technical capability of qualified businesses providing an artificial intelligence interface that can provide customer service in a conversational manner. This is not a request for quotations or proposals, and we do not guarantee the issuance of a solicitation as a result of this notice.  We will use the information we obtained from this research for planning purposes only. ...

SSA needs to incorporate technology to supplement our first level customer support interactions with automated and intelligent self-serve options our customers expect. We want to go beyond a static FAQs knowledge base, and interact with customers in a conversational manner using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This technology should be capable of undergoing both supervised and unsupervised learning for continuously improving its support capability.

The technology should be able to remember actions and contextual details during conversations, and leverage the captured information for suitable responses to other users, as appropriate.

A suitable, user-friendly interface for business experts who will be involved in supervised learning is essential. The interface should allow the experts to define and refine business rules, responses and response patterns, for example.

The technology should include tools that allow testing of user inputs and intent as well as conversation flow.

The new technology cannot require extensive training for proficiency. It must provide flexibility in offering technicians with a broad range of skillsets the opportunity to successfully share and complete tasks for the public.

This technology should support seamless transition of conversation history of authenticated users across channels and sessions.

The technology should recognize when it has reached its limitations with customer support, and offer transferring the customer to a live agent.

The technology should provide appropriate administrative functions to manage users and access for testing, refinements and deployment. In addition, it should include a comprehensive analytics capability.

The technology must continue to give our customers the service they have come to expect to complete business with SSA accurately and quickly, at any time, in any location, and on any platform. ...

 

Merry Christmas?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Bill Seeks Annual Social Security Statements

     From a press release issued yesterday:

Today, House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson (D-CT), Ways and Means Committee Member Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Finance Committee Member Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) introduced the Know Your Social Security Act.

The legislation will clarify the requirement for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to mail an annual Social Security Statement to all workers ages 25 and older with covered earnings, who are not receiving Social Security benefits. Since Fiscal Year 2011 SSA has failed to mail annual Statements to these Americans, citing limited operating budgets, even though in 1989 and 1990 Congress enacted requirements for SSA to provide a Statement annually. ...

The bill has been endorsed by:
AARP
Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC)
Coalition for Paper Options
Justice in Aging
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Social Security Works
The Arc of the United States
The Senior Citizens League

Can They Do This?

     On November 4 my firm received a Title XVI fee by direct deposit. On November 22, Social Security reached back into our bank account and took the money back without any prior notice. We've received no written notice from Social Security about this event.

     Fee overpayments happen from time to time. Typically, we get a notice to return the money. We do. In fact, we’ve generally returned the money even before receiving a notice. I've never seen Social Security just grab the money. Has anyone else seen this? Can they do this?

Four People Taken Ill At Nashville Field Office But Problem Quickly Solved

     From a television station in Nashville:

Four people have been treated after feeling ill by a reported odor at a social security administration office in Nashville, the Nashville Fire Department (NFD) says.Crews were first dispatched to the social security office on Cumberland Bend around 10:15 a.m. Thursday, when someone smelled the odor and called NFD.

The cause of the odor was determined to be hydrogen sulfide, also called sewer gas, the source of which was a dry plumbing trap. ...

     What's a plumbing trap? You have drains in bathrooms in office buildings. These drains are connected to sewer systems which are full of sewer gas which is nasty stuff. The gas is kept out of the building by a P trap or something like a P trap that depends upon some water caught in the trap to keep the gas out. Let the water evaporate and the gas gets in the building. Run some water into the trap and the problem is solved. Cleaning crews are supposed to take care of this but sometimes forget.

The Invisible Dog Named Timmy

     From The Spectator:

The Social Security office in Detroit is a dispiriting place done up in industrial grays. It is filled with the long, glum faces of those who molder in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy waiting for some faceless bureaucrat to help them. ...

Into this purgatory enters Gus Malone, a raggedy 52-year-old homeless man, along with his invisible dog Timmy. Gus parades Timmy up and down the gray carpet of the waiting room as if it were the competition floor of the Westminster Kennel Club. ...

Here, Gus casts a sideways glance up at the government clerk who is sitting behind the bulletproof glass, wanting to be sure she is taking all this in. But it appears that imaginary dogs are as common at the Social Security office as daffodils in spring. The bureaucrat bats not an eyelash at the dog who is not there.

Gus has come to the Detroit office to file a disability claim with the federal government, hoping to hit the jackpot of all jackpots — $771 a month, every month, for the rest of his natural-born days.

Gus then admits that there really is no Timmy. It is a ruse that he characterizes as ‘playing crazy’. The invisible-dog bit may be the dollop of perceived schizophrenia that will fast-track his application directly to the top of the ‘approved’ basket. ...

For all the electronic chatter about the comeback of Detroit, it is hard to see it here at the Social Security office, miles from the refurbished office towers of downtown where the artificial beach, deck chairs and outdoor cocktail stands have become something of a surrogate Puerto Vallarta for the skinny-jeaned millennials who work the cubicles there. ...

The Motor City is hardly alone. Nationwide, more than 8.5 million people of working age collect a federal disability check. The phenomenon has been dubbed the ‘disability-industrial complex’. Consider: more is paid for federal disability claims than for welfare and food stamps combined. It is into this army of have-nots that Gus hopes to enlist. ...

      A few thoughts:

• I guess Gus is real but I've seen a few contrived psychiatric disability claims but I don't think that I've ever seen one as ridiculously contrived as the one described here.
• It's actually quite difficult to get Social Security disability based upon psychiatric illness. It's almost impossible to get a claim approved if the claimant isn't receiving active treatment. 
• What are the odds that Gus will be willing to see a psychiatrist for treatment even once, much less on a regular basis?
• What are the odds that Gus could fool a psychiatric professional for a minute? I'll answer that one since I may have some readers who have less than no knowledge of psychiatry. The answer is NO!
• Assuming Gus is real, he really may have serious psychiatric illness; just not the sort of thing he's acting out. There are "gild the lily" claimants who are quite ill but who add a layer of contrivance on top that makes it harder to get them approved. Factitious disorder is itself a real psychiatric illness. 
• My experience is that the vast majority of homeless people have serious psychiatric problems. Sometimes, it's substance abuse that won't qualify for disability benefits but mostly it's other problems.