Tuesday, September 9, 2008

“Unconscionable backlog & untold suffering” - Congress takes a look at SSA's hearing offices.

In a press release today, entitled Clearing the Disability Backlog, the Subcommittee on Social Security's Chairman McNulty announced a Hearing on the Performance of Social Security Administration Appeals Hearing Offices. We provide some of the salient points of the release below, including the focus of the hearing which will be on the performance of SSA’s hearing offices, factors that affect productivity, initiatives SSA is taking to increase efficiency and productivity, and other approaches to improving productivity without compromising the quality and impartiality of decision-making or the due process rights of claimants.The hearing will take place on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, in room B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m.


In announcing the hearing, Chairman McNulty said, “Earlier hearings have demonstrated that prolonged underfunding has resulted in the loss of staff needed to process disability cases at the Social Security Administration. This has led to an unprecedented backlog of unprocessed claims and untold suffering. The agency must have the resources it needs to eliminate this unconscionable backlog., [ emphasis added.] At the same time, we must ensure that SSA uses these resources as effectively as possible. This hearing will examine SSA’s management of its hearing offices, and explore measures that can be taken to improve productivity without compromising the right of claimants to a fair and impartial decision on their case.Over the past several years, SSA’s disability claims backlogs have grown to unprecedented levels, with more than 1.3 million Americans currently awaiting a decision regarding their claim. Backlogs are particularly severe for the more than 765,000 Americans who have had their cases denied at an earlier stage of the process and have requested a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). These individuals now wait an average of 532 days for a decision on their appeal. This hearing will focus on the performance of SSA’s hearing offices and SSA’s overall management of these offices.

SSA’s hearing process is an important one for claimants..[a]pproximately two-thirds of those who appeal to the ALJ level are awarded benefits. However, the process is very labor intensive for SSA, typically requiring clerical staff to prepare the case file, obtain evidence and schedule the hearing with all necessary experts and other participants; ALJs to review the case, conduct the hearing, and make a decision; and attorneys or paralegals to draft the decision and accompanying legal rationale for it, based on the judge’s instructions.

According to a recent report from SSA’s Inspector General (IG), the productivity of SSA’s hearing process has improved in recent years. In 2005, SSA produced 421 dispositions per ALJ. By 2007, productivity had increased by 13 percent, to 474 dispositions per ALJ. However, hearing office performance varies significantly between offices. The IG found that productivity was often hindered by a lack of hearing office support staff, a conclusion the IG had also reached in a March 2005 report. Interviews with ALJs and hearing office staff also identified other factors that could affect productivity, including the use of a number of techniques to promote speedier processing (such as spending less time reviewing the case and conducting the hearing). Finally, the IG found that a small number of ALJs – approximately 1 percent – processed fewer than 200 cases per year even though they were employed as full-time adjudicators. At the same time, the IG reported that some judges – about 2 percent – issued more than 1,000 decisions in a year. This could raise concerns about the quality of these decisions.

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