If You Can Use Digital Signatures, Why Can't We?

      From a Social Security newsletter (emphasis added):

We are required to conduct continuing eligibility reviews for disabled beneficiaries every three years. This process requires that beneficiaries complete a Continuing Disability Review mailer to update information about their medical conditions and recent treatments.

We now offer an online option to complete this update and provide any supporting documents about your medical treatment or your work.

We designed this new form with convenience in mind—and to save you time. You can access the online form at www.ssa.gov/ssa455-online-form. (Use either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome for the best online experience.) ...

Once you “Click to Sign,” you will receive an email from echosign.com asking you to confirm your digital signature. Check your junk folder if you don’t receive it within a few minutes. Your signature isn’t complete—and your form won’t be processed—until you complete the instructions in your email.

     I think this is the first time I've seen Social Security accepting digital signatures. Attorneys have been complaining for some time that Social Security won't accept digital signatures on documents submitted by attorneys.

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Happy Halloween

 

Smart People Do Dumb Things Department

    From a press release:

The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Gail S. Ennis, today announced Federal charges of wire fraud against a former senior financial analyst for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, for an alleged fraud scheme involving the Social Security Administration and the Federal Reserve System’s disability programs. ...

Lawrence Rufrano, who made his initial appearance October 28, 2020 in the Northern District of California, is alleged to have worked as executive director of a financial technology laboratory at a university and various law firms while collecting both long-term disability benefits from the Federal Reserve System and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The fraud loss is estimated to be $185,000. ...

According to the complaint, Rufrano did not report his outside employment to either disability benefit program despite requirements to do so. ...

     Rufrano was Executive Director of Stanford University's Future of Digital Currency Institute.

Opioids And Social Security Disability

      There's a newly published study on The Effects of Opioids on Labor Market Outcomes and Use of Social Security Disability Insurance which purports to find that increased opioid use led to both more employment and more disability claims, which is a surprising if not confounding result. 

     One problem with the study is that the author did not attempt to measure the actual use of opioids. The author measured "marketing payments from opioid manufacturers and distributors to physicians as an instrument to predict opioid prescribing."

     I wonder if the study has cause and effect backwards. Wouldn't a population with more disabled people than average be one that an unscrupulous opioid manufacturer would want to target? Aren't disabled people an obvious market for opioids? Don't you intensify sales efforts in a geographic area where your marketing campaign seems to be paying dividends? 

Disability Trust Fund Reserves Increasing Despite Pandemic

      There's reason for concern over the status of Social Security's Retirement and Survivor's Insurance Trust Fund. Because of the pandemic, F.I.C.A. revenues are down, while payments to retirees continue. However, despite a decline in revenues, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's reserves are increasing because payments to disabled beneficiaries keep going down. By the way in reading the table below, keep in mind that there is considerable seasonality in F.I.C.A. payments. Compare each quarter of this year to the same quarter in the preceding year and look at the overall picture.