Social Security Lawyers of America - Latest Blog Entries

Social Security Hearings Backlog Falls to Lowest Level Since 2005

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:33:00 -0500

Pending Cases Drop Below 700,000; Processing Time Down 72 Days

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the number of disability hearings pending stands at 697,437 cases -- the lowest level since June 2005 and down more than 71,000 cases since December 2008, when the trend of month-by-month reductions began. In addition, the average processing time for hearing decisions has decreased to 442 days, down from a high of 514 days at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2008.

"We have decreased the number of hearings pending by almost 10 percent over the last 14 months and cut the time it takes to make a decision by nearly two and a half months. This remarkable progress shows our backlog reduction plan is working," Commissioner Astrue said. "With ongoing support from the President and Congress as well as the efforts of our hardworking employees, I am confident the hearings backlog will continue to diminish."

Social Security has actively addressed the hearings backlog and increased the capacity to hold more hearings. The agency hired 147 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and over 1,000 support staff in FY 2009, and has plans to hire an additional 226 ALJs this year. The agency now has four National Hearing Centers to help process hearings by video conference for the most hard-hit areas of the country. The agency also has aggressive plans to open 14 new hearing offices and three satellite offices by the end of the year. The first of these offices was opened in Anchorage, Alaska on February 19, 2010.

For more information about Social Security's hearings process and backlog reduction initiatives, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/appeals.

Fighting for Social Security benefits: Resident finds long, hard road to getting disability claim approved

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:11:00 -0500

For three years, four months and 11 days, Debra Shirar waited for the Social Security Administration to say yes to her disability claim.

In that time, she accepted state assistance for a little more than $100 a month, lived with a friend and rummaged through her neighbors' garbage to find aluminum cans she could sell to buy medicine.

"I have taken 30 days worth of pills and made them last 90 ... because I don't have the money," Shirar said.

The former gym teacher, prison guard and call center representative has many physical ailments that have left her unable to work. They include migraines, sleep apnea, asthma, arthritis in her knees, a degenerative tailbone and neuropathy in both arms.

Two weeks ago, the Social Security Administration told Shirar something she had known since October 2006: She was disabled.

"It's over," 58-year-old Shirar said. "The resolution is nice, but not as sweet as it would be if I didn't have to go through with it in the first place. I would rather be working."

Improvements made

Shirar's case is not unusual, said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas. Even Shirar considers herself fortunate with her almost three-and-a-half-year wait.

"People with disabilities get pulled through that wringer over and over again," Nichols said. "The system of applying for and being deemed eligible for Social Security benefits can be a very draining, difficult system to navigate."

A combination of aging baby boomers, shrinking or stagnant budgets and a poor economy has sent the number of disability cases skyrocketing in the past few years.

In 2007, Kansas was ranked as the worst state in the country for the time it took to process disability claims.

The SSA took note and started making improvements by hiring more administrative law judges to hear cases, having other centers across the country pick up cases, and making plans to open a new hearings office in Topeka in the next year.

Both the Kansas City and Wichita hearing offices have seen a drop in the number of cases waiting to be heard and the length of time it takes to process them.

Still, at 581 days, Kansas City ranks among the top 10 offices in the country for the longest wait times, according to data provided by the SSA.

A long road

Shirar first applied for disability in October 2006. When that claim was denied, she appealed it.

Then came a really long wait: almost 900 days.

In March 2009, Shirar had her hearing.

"I would have crawled to Kansas City if I had to," Shirar said at the time. "That was one of the most important days of my life."

What she didn't realize then was that her wait wasn't over.

After the hearing, 90 days went by with no decision.

Through the help of U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore's office, Shirar discovered that a mistake had been made and a decision was never sent to her or her attorney.

Shirar learned of the decision to deny her claims 30 days after the deadline for appealing it. With the urging of Moore's office, the case eventually ended up at the Appeals Council in Virginia, Shirar said.

A decision on that case has yet to be made.

In June as the first case was in limbo, Shirar filed another disability claim on the advice of her attorney.

"I thought, 'Oh, great, here is the nightmare again,'" she said.This time the process went much faster. A decision arrived in her mailbox by mid-February.

"I was scared to death," Shirar said of opening the letter that gave her the approval she had been waiting for. "Once I read it, I sat there and I couldn't believe it."

Shirar will soon start receiving monthly disability checks -- an amount that is roughly 10 times more than what she has been living on for the past year.

Shirar predicts she'll continue to be a penny-pincher. She already has set up appointments to see an eye doctor and a dentist, something she couldn't afford to do while waiting for disability.

"The monetary (part of it) isn't that important to me. The thing that is really important to me is I will be able to go to the doctors now," Shirar said.

She has other plans as well, such as helping local disability advocacy groups.

"I can't work any more. That is obvious," Shirar said. "But there is nothing that says I can't talk. So I intend to tell my story to everyone I know."

Originally published at: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/mar/03/fighting-social-security-benefits-resident-finds-l/

Social Security expands health information network

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:51:00 -0500

The agency says data exchange has proven beneficial to expediting disability claims.
By Pamela Lewis Dolan, amednews staff. Posted March 3, 2010.

The Social Security Administration is expanding on what it has considered a successful demonstration of the Nationwide Health Information Network with the awarding of 15 contracts totaling more than $17 million.

The organization has been testing the use of the NHIN, the result of links between of local health information exchange networks, for the last year by receiving data electronically from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and from MedVirginia, a regional health information exchange in central Virginia. The data are used to help expedite disability claims applications.

With an expected 27% increase in disability claims from 2009 to 2010, the organization is looking to increase the amount of data received electronically. The electronic transfer of information has allowed the organization to decrease the claims processing time from several weeks to days, it said. In some cases, the agency has reported same-day processing.

Among the largest contracts was one worth $1.6 million awarded to the California Regional Health Information Organization, which actually shut down in January after the state failed to recognize it as the governing body for a statewide health information exchange. CalRHIO was unable to reach an agreement with the California e-Health Collaborative to form a joint entity.

Kia S. Green, spokeswoman for the SSA, said it is aware of CalRHIO's closure. The money will likely go to its successor, she said. But "there are a number of other federal acquisition requirements that must be met by the new entity and agreed to by us," Green said in an e-mail to AMNews. "We will not issue a notice to proceed until these issues are addressed to our satisfaction."

The state has not named a successor as of press time, but several CalRHIO staffers and board members are continuing their work in HIEs.

The Southeastern Michigan Health Assn., a consortium of health departments in southeast Michigan, will receive the largest chunk -- nearly $3 million -- of the grant money. CareSpark, a regional health information exchange in Kingsport, Tenn., that covers east Tennessee and southwest Virginia, will receive nearly $1.4 million.

The grant money the SSA is providing was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:52:00 -0600

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