OHO Caseload Analysis Report

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

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Remote Work And Disability

     From Does Remote Work Help Older People With Disabilities? by Siyan Liu and Laura D. Quinby, a study for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

...The shift to remote work that started during COVID and has persisted may have improved job prospects for older people with disabilities by reducing barriers to employment. Consistent with this view, this brief finds that nearly all of the post-pandemic employment gain for older people with disabilities has been in teleworkable occupations, and this pattern holds even after controlling for other factors. Remote work benefits older workers with disabilities by allowing some to reenter the labor force and others to switch jobs instead of exiting work. ...

      Let's remember that whatever benefits there are to disabled people from remote work can only help a part of the disabled population. It doesn't help blue collar workers. People who work in offices, such as most of the people reading this blog, may not be aware that most workers don't work in offices and don't hold jobs that allow remote work.

On That Other Blog

    I continue posting on my firm's separate blog directed at a different audience -- For The Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimant. Take a look at some of the recent posts on that blog.  

• Disabled Widow And Widower Benefits
• Auto-Immune Disorders
• What Are Disabled Adult Child Benefits?
• What Is Disability Insurance Benefits?
• Fibromyalgia
• How Do I Dress For A Social Security Disability Hearing?
• What Is SSI?
• Your Medical Condition
• Avoid Unnecessary Payment Delays
• Why Is There A Waiting Period?
• FAQs On Consultative Examinations
• Help Yourself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good News

      A tweet from Social Security:

The IT issue that affected personalized services for several hours on Friday has been resolved.  In-person services and full telephone support will resume Monday.

Major IT Failure

     Social Security is in the midst of a major national IT failure. Every time I hear an estimate on when it will be fixed it's later than the last estimate I heard. They're now saying early afternoon Eastern time but who knows whether that will hold?

    Are the field offices able to service walk-ins? Scheduled appointments? Able to do anything? Are the payment centers able to get any work done? What about the teleservice centers? Are hearings being held?

    Update: This is from Social Security's website:

Social Security’s personalized services - online and in-person - are temporarily unavailable while we address an IT hardware issue. We continue to answer general questions by telephone on our 800 number and in our local offices, while offices are temporarily closed to in-person service. We are working to quickly resolve the issue today and apologize for the inconvenience.

    Update: They've made progress. I was able to get in ERE at 3:20 pm EDT.

A 73% Error Rate?

    From Follow-up on the Accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s Manual Billing Process to Collect Medicare Premiums, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

...  When a Medicare Part B recipient receives a monthly Social Security benefit, SSA deducts the monthly Medicare premium from the benefit. Some individuals’ monthly Social Security benefit is lower than the monthly Medicare premium. SSA bills these individuals for the balance of the premium. Each year, SSA uses its Benefit Rate Increase (BRI) program to generate an alert for individuals whose Social Security benefit is lower than their monthly Medicare premium. SSA considers this alert to be a high priority because SSA must bill beneficiaries the remaining Medicare premium as soon as possible and timely issue benefit statements.

In a 2016 report on the Accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s Manual Billing Process to Collect Medicare Premiums, we concluded SSA incorrectly calculated the Medicare premium owed for 48 percent of the sampled beneficiaries we reviewed. For this audit, we reviewed a random sample of 100 beneficiaries from a population of 111,976 beneficiaries SSA’s BRI program identified in November 2022.

SSA timely processed the cases in our sample; however, it incorrectly processed or calculated the Medicare premium owed for 73 of the 100 beneficiaries we reviewed where their Medicare premium was higher than their SSA benefit payments. This included approximately $147,000 in processing errors where employees did not correctly credit monthly benefits to Medicare billing information and $102,000 in payment errors where beneficiaries were not correctly billed for Medicare premiums, which led to overages and arrearages.

Based on the results for our sample, we project SSA did not correctly update records or calculate Medicare premiums owed for approximately 82,000 beneficiaries, which resulted in approximately $76 million in billing errors and $91 million in processing errors. ...

Anomaly Requested For Social Security

     The federal fiscal year ends on September 30. Without Congressional action there will be a government shutdown. It's clear that individual appropriation bills will not be passed before the end of the month. A Continuing Resolution (CR), which permits the continuation of spending at the previous rate, will be needed. Every time there's a CR, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submits a list of "anomalies" -- government functions that require something beyond the prior rate of spending. The OMB anomalies list this time includes a request that the Social Security Administration be funded at the full rate of the President's budget request for FY 2025 -- $15.4 billion instead of the $14.2 billion in the FY 2024 appropriation, warning that:

... Without the anomaly, SSA would be required to reduce funding for core information technology operations including SSA's network support. In addition, SSA would likely reduce the hours field offices are open to the public and would need to close field offices over time, extending wait times or seniors and individuals with disabilities. ...

    Government Executive calls the OMB request for Social Security an "unusual step."

    It's unlikely that Social Security will receive anything like what is requested. The House funding bill doesn't include an increase for Social Security. In fact, it cuts Social Security's appropriation below the current FY.

Benefits Come In After TV Station Gets Involved

     I guess this is a dog bites man story but a Virginia man has finally received his Social Security benefits after the intervention of a television station. 

    But Social Security has announced that it's stopped doing this sort of thing. No more expediting a case because of "adverse public relations potential." Of course, I didn't think they'd really stop. Did you? 

    I'm certainly not sorry the man finally got his benefits. He had been waiting far too long. It's just that he's not the only one. Getting media intervention is like winning the lottery. It has little to do with just how bad the delay is.