Action Plan 2024

     Social Security has recently released its Action Plan 2024. It's a good summary of what has been done during the time that the current Commissioner has been on the job.

    Social Security can be proud of what has been accomplished this year but there's going to be no fundamental change for agency employees or those who deal with the agency until the agency gets a significantly higher appropriation. The low hanging fruit has been picked. There's no way to manage the agency out of the hole it's in. As former Commissioner Michael Astrue said, it's going to take "brute force," as in a lot more employees.

On This Day In 1935 FDR Signed The Legislation Creating Social Security In The United States

 

    Notice the only woman in the picture. That's Frances Perkins, who may deserve more credit for the bill's passage than anyone.

Report On Priority Cases

    From The Social Security Administration’s Processing of Priority Cases, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

... Each year, SSA identifies at least 200,000 (10 percent) of the initial disability applications as priority cases. SSA identifies priority cases for expedited processing through a combination of automated and manual means. Policy requires that SSA develop and process cases identified as priority expeditiously.

We reviewed 668,352 claimants whose initial disability applications SSA selected for priority processing. We also reviewed 153,964 claimants who had initial disability applications that may have been eligible for priority processing.

Generally, SSA properly identified, expedited, and processed initial disability applications that qualified as a priority case. SSA’s selection of cases for priority processing was proper for over 96.1 percent of claimants we reviewed.

However, SSA did not expeditiously develop and process initial disability applications for 11 (6.1 percent) of 180 sampled claimants. Delays occurred because SSA did not always monitor the processing of the 11 cases that were selected for priority processing to ensure they were processed expeditiously. Further, SSA’s policy does not specify overall processing timeframes and/or goals for priority cases. As a result, we estimate SSA delayed case development and processing for 40,844 claimants with priority cases.

OHO Caseload Analysis Report

     A statistical report from Social Security on performance at its Office of Hearings Operations:

Click on image to view full size

 

Senators Seek Action On Long Covid Disability Claims

     Seven Democratic Senators have written the Commissioner of Social Security asking that something be done about disability claims filed by those suffering from long Covid.

    As I've said before, I'm out there representing Social Security disability claimants. My firm is taking on new cases regularly. I'm only seeing a very few claimants with long Covid. I don't see any more problem with those few cases than with other Social Security disability claims which means there are severe problems.

    The letter  also said that a couple of more general changes should be made:

... SSA should allow appointed representatives to see all exhibits at the initial and reconsideration disability claim stages. ...

SSA should restore the “treating physician rule” so a claimant’s primary care physician or Long COVID specialist can have their medical opinion given the weight it deserves. ...

Senators Seek Answers On AI Usage

     From Government Executive:

... Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sent a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley asking for information about how the agency is complying with the Biden administration’s March policy mandating safeguards for AI use. ...

Wyden and Crapo also warned O’Malley against overly relying on artificial intelligence as he seeks to chart a path out of Social Security’s customer service crisis, spurred primarily by a slow disinvestment in the agency by Congress, leading to the agency having its smallest workforce in 30 years amid the greatest number of beneficiaries in history. ...

New Conditions Added To Compassionate Allowance List

    Social Security is adding some new conditions to its compassionate allowance list of conditions that are supposed to result in having disability claims approved quickly. I think the least uncommon one on the adult list would be "Adult Heart Transplant Wait List – Status Levels 1-4."  Here's a description of what those status levels mean:

• 1 - 3: Most often hospitalized in ICU to support their heart.
• 4: This group is often at home but may need IV medications or VAD [Ventricular Assistive Device] to support their heart.
• 6: This group includes all others who are stable enough to remain home while they wait for a heart.
  

    I think anyone in status level 1-4 would easily meet a Listing anyway so I can't say this means much.

    Also, I've had clients who were on a heart transplant list and I don't recall any mention of a Status Level in their medical records.

Adverse Public Relations Potential No Longer A Hardship -- They Say

    From a recent update to Social Security's POMS (Program Operations Manual Series) manual:

To promote homogeneity between the Dire Need POMS and the Dire Need HALLEX instructions, we have revised the language in the Dire Need POMS. ...

We revised and clarified the definition of dire need. We also deleted language which suggested claimants with adverse public relations potential as hardship situations qualifying as dire need condition.

    I'd be amazed if they don't still scurry to resolve cases which get press attention.