Transcripts For CSPAN Lawmakers Consider Social Security Dis

CSPAN Lawmakers Consider Social Security Disability Benefit Eligibility September 9, 2017

With the backlog forhose of drawing applyingor benefits. The challenges faces, since i have been chairman we have held 18 hearings including today on the Disability Insurance program. On one topic or another. Now thats a lot of hearings. But the Disability Insurance program is too important for Social Security not to get it right. Americans pay taxes on their hard earned wages for the promise of future social secuty benefits. When the worker retires, and is unable to work unable to disability or dies. These benefits are animportant part of a familys financial security. And americans rightfully expect that when they apply for benefits, if they areeligible, that they will receive them ickly. But for those applying for disability benefits, that isnt the case. Today over 1Million People are waiting for a heing with Social Security admistrative law judges and on the average these folks will wt around 600 days to get that hearing. Thats nearly two years. And thats after waiting almost four months on the average for an initial decision. And more than 3 monthsor a second look. Known as reconsideration. While not all of them will qualify for benefits, all of these people deserve an answer in a timely fashion. And for those who dont qualify forbenefits, these long wait times make getting back to work even harder. With backlogs at records highs, its more important tn ever for Social Security to insure the program is working as intended. The Compassionate Alliance program was created in 2008 as a way to help those with the most severe impairments jump to the front of line. But, as we will hear today, this program doet always work the way it should. Its clear Social Security has serious problems, when it comes to making surep eople get the disability decisions as quickly asossible. But Social Security problems and the Disability Insurance proam are more than long wait times. Since 2003, Social Security Disability Programs have been on the gao high sk list. Outdated criteria to do determine eligibility for disability benefits. While some progress has been made, theres more work be done to modernize Social Securitys Disability Program. As we know more money is isn always the answer. This year the Social Security administration received 90 million in dedicated funding to adess the disability backlog. Yet, wait timescontinue to grow. Social security used some of this funding in much needed information technology. Improvements. That should pay dividends in the long run. The Social Security Administration Must find ways to be more efficient and moderne the Disability Insurance programs. And today weregoing to hear about how Social Security plans to do just that. This wont be easy work. And theres plenty to do. Social security needs more than just a plan to fix this. It needs real leadership. And thats a large part of of management problem. Since 2013, Social Security has had an active commissioner. In february Ranking Member lar larson and i, along with our from the Human Resources subcommittee. Sent a letter to President Trump asking that he nominate a commissioner without delay. Social security needs a Senate Confirmed commissioner who can lead the agency and focus on providingthe Service Americans expect and deserve. Social security provides important benefits that Many Americans rely on. With the right leadership, and a good plan, Social Security can get back on the right track. But until then, this subcommittee will keep asking tough questions about how to get this done. The American People deserve nothing less. And im sure that my pateriot compatriot next to me agrees to that. I will recognize mr. Larson. Mr. Larson i thank our distinguished chairman and i certainly concur withthat. With that. And most importantly, concur in saying your continued leadership to your country and every capacity is greatly respected. And i would say that we are in agreement on a number of the problems that Social Security is set with. As you know mr. Chairman, million offense americans rely on Social Security for basic income. When they retire. Or if they are severely disabled and can no longer work. Social security is also there to help widows and children who have lost a parent. There is no private plan on the market that can compare to Social Security. We are living that fact currently. The people at Social Security deserve credit. In the midst of harvey and the devastation when the people of texas and the greater houston down, ith irma bearing is heartening to know Social Security has not missed a payment, Social Security has people working with the red cross and of their volunteer agencies. They are there to help make sure america gets americas number one program, the Social Security program. Natural disasters remind us of how important it is to fight back calls to cut Social Security and come together in a bipartisan way to make common sense adjustments to protect the benefits americans have earned and rely on. The chairman and i have offered plans to address the Social Security system so americans can continue to count on these benefits whether they become disabled, or die prematurely leaving Young Children behind. While offering while differing in our approaches i hope we will be will to have a hearing. I keep looking for a hearing in play no, texas with our distinguished chairman. Anywhere in the country where we what have aittoet eones worit will,et e tality of ideas come forward. We share the same goals. We have a different path of getting there. Onays hearing is focused record high delays in processing disability applications. This is simply unacceptable. Core oforable at its what every day average citizens in this country have to endure. More than 600 days . It is unconscionable. Since 2010 the number of beneficiaries have grown by 13 as baby boomers reach retirement age and as we saw after the great recession, number of people who lost jobs and are scrambling for positions. The Social Security operating after has fallen by 10 accounting for inflation. Difficult if it not impossible for Social Security to serve our constituents properly when they need help the most. That is where i think money does matter. Money in these budgets, so we can get the frontline people who can handle this. Weve had many discussions about technology. Have been technological advances but not on the scale that we need. Nothing on a scale that will assist us in a way that case worker can who can deal with an individual personally, like these people are currently enduring in houston. There are delays throughout the Social Security administration. Todays hearing is focused on this. The Administrative Law judge who can decide on disability benefits. These hearings are important for the first time an applicant gets to meet facetoface, these hearings are the first time the Social Security administrator has complete medical evidence in hand and they can seek help from an attorney or professional, which is important if and how complex the law is in this area. Is 600 days. Ight i have several constituents in my district. Im so glad we are going to get to hear from her. When you find people are committing suicide, in many. Ases they lose their homes when you look at what happens to them mentally. People that have served in the armed services, with ptsd, who find their greatest stress becomes dealing with the Social Security system that is there to help them. It is unconscionable that this goes on. We have to solve this problem on behalf of the citizens we are sworn to serve by correcting and making sure americas primary Insurance Program for its citizens is there to provide them relief on a timely basis. I say Insurance Program because that is what it is. Citizens have contributed to this program. They deserve the best as the chairman underscored in his remarks. Im looking forward to the testimony today. Thank you. Any member is welcome to submit a statement for the hearing record. Before we move on i want to remind our witnesses to please limit your oral statements to five minutes. Objection, all the written testimony will be made part of the hearing record. We have five witnesses today. The acting chief of staff, Social Security administration. Laron, income security issues, Government Accountability office. That is a mouthful. Chief. Th, bureau on behalf of National Council of disability determination directors. Administrativef law judges. And lisa, director of Government Affairs, National Organization of Social Security. Consortium fore citizens with Disabilities Task force. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Please proceed. Thank you. Chairman johnson. Ranking member lawson. Im the acting chief of staff of the Social Security administration. Is your microphone on . Yes. Begin, ourre i thoughts are with those affected by the devastation in texas and louisiana by hurricane harvey. We know chairman bradys district is especially affected and they are providing Disaster Relief services. Closed,e offices were we were onsite with fema over the weekend in three sites in texas and louisiana. They could request immediate payment in person if they did not receive regular payment. We will continue to be onsite in three locations. All but two of our field offices in texas have opened again. Thank you for inviting me to discuss how we are taking a systematic approach. Were appreciate the subcommittee for its oversight of the Disability Programs in your recommendations. With 50 years of experience at Social Security we are committed to serving the public effectively and compassionately. To preserving the integrity of the Social Security programs. Focused, mission driven. Definesal security act disability as the inability to engage in gainful activity due to a physical or mental impairment that will last at least one year or result in death. While this provides a Statutory Foundation of our social ,ecurity Disability Insurance our management of the program is informed by both technology and policy advances. The changes in Health Care Delivery require us to rethink our use of medical information and its consistency. The policy updates and revisions we have made established the foundation for a systematic approach to disability decisionmaking. We have revised most of our listings of impairment criteria after we finish the updates. We will update the listings using a 35 year update cycle. We have the expertise in place to meet this objective. We are developing an Information System that will be the primary source of Occupational Information used in disability adjudication. We are committed to providing and quality policy research had been working with the bureau of labor statistics collecting data since 2015. System to implement this in 2020 with the introduction of a vocational information tool. Developed our6 we plan to improve hearing were close work loads. We greatly appreciate the 90 million in funding that congress has provided. The plan will permit us to enhance our business efficiencies and allow us to increase our adjudicative capacity by hiring additional decision riders and other support staff. The plan supports technological investments such as using natural language processing to improve the quality of our decisions. The quality of our decisions to us. En paramount we are established the office of analytics review and oversight which will improve coordination on the disability you judy occasion process. This centralizes all Agency Offices that analyze data and conducts quality reviews of our hearings process. We appreciate work in assessing our comparison and allowances program delivering Faster Services making decisions quickly to eligible individuals with the most serious disabilities. Were working to incorporate their recommendations to strengthen the program. Weve updated our website to be more transparent and include useful information to submit. It will be the focus of our National Disability form. We are enhancing our internal processes as well to develop conditions including enhancements that would give us more flexibility for the program. Thank you for your interest in discussing disability with us. We serve the most vulnerable segment of our society. We will continue to be mission driven, mission focused as we serve millions of individuals who need our help. We look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you. Chairman johnson. Im pleased to be here today to discuss the report on the Social Security Administration Allowance initiative. Expedites thee processing of disability claims for those with certain conditions. It could otherwise take months. It has been effective in fast questions have been raised on how the initiative has been implemented. My remarks will focus on three issues. How is this a identifies conditions for inclusion on the list, how claims are designated for expedited processing, and how they ensure the accuracy and consistency of decisions. On identifying conditions for inclusion on the cow list. Lacks the number of conditions included has grown from 50 to 228. Some conditions were added to the additional list following public hearings. Has relied on advocates to bring condition to its attention. They have not provided guidance on its webpage on how to make suggestions, has not consistently communicated with. Hose who suggested additions and has not conducted outreach to help ensure all advocates are aware of initiatives. Clear orot have consistent criteria that he to determine whether to designate a condition as cal. They may be overlooking conditions appropriate for inclusion. Conditions are designated as cal. Fsa relies on Selection Software that uses a word search of the impairment description to determine whether the claim refers to a cal condition. When it is ambiguous or inaccurate the software wont catch the condition. For example, the software accurately flagged stage four lung cancer as advanced stage lung cancer but did not like a claim were the claimant described their condition as lung cancer terminal. This has the opportunity to correctlyims are designated as cal by manually changing a flag. Staff varied on whether they add over move cal status. Fsa does not have clear guidance on when to change cal designations and some examiners didnt understand the importance of making such changes. In 2016, half of disability offices did not manually add more than a single cal designation to a claim. Found fsa uses detailed conditions known as impairment summaries as a key tool to ensure accurate claims decisions. These summaries are not regularly updated. A third of cow impairment server is our more than a year old. Medical experts suggested given advances in medical Research Summary should be updated every 13 years. While fsa collect state debt on , they like denial rates dont levera this data to inform improvements in the accuracy and consistency of claim decisions. In conclusion, cal is viewed positively and appears to be effectively expediting the process is saying with its designation. However, weaknesses have led to unintended consequences. Absent improvements in how they identify cal conditions, designate cal claims, and ensure isuracy and consistency, fsa missing an opportunity. This concludes my prepared statement. Im happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Chairman johnson. Members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Collectively we direct the work of 16,000 employees, processing 4. 7 million disability cases a year. Im here to provide you with on the ground perspective of the dds community. In c triple the recommends consistent policy application across the nation. We support the reinstatement of the reconsideration step, the first denial. Introduced in 10 states the prototype pilot removes the reconsideration appeal level. T

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