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Articles from prior issues of The Advocate
May/June, 1999
| John Dyer Assistant Principal Commissioner for Social Security Administration
Presentation to NADE Mid-Year Board Meeting by Terri Klubertanz, Great Lakes Regional Director MR. DYER PERSONALLY THANKED NADE for its help and support with all the redesign projects. In particular, he complemented NADE for the “even-handedness” of comments, feedback and remarks that have been submitted. He stated that he believes the redesign decisions are an advantage to those individuals employed in the profession: "You’ve wanted more accountability and responsibility and now we will try to work with the states to see that you get paid for it." He stated that there are three major issues facing Social Security: Solvency, SSI, and Disability. Summaries of the areas below: |
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| 1. Solvency - The President’s proposed plan is to
devote 60 percent of the surplus of the budget to allow SSA to be able
to pay full retirement benefits until the year 2055. The President would
like to work with Congress to extend this out through the year 2075. The
remaining 40 percent of the surplus would go to: 11 percent to USA accounts
(like IRAs) - the federal government would help start up the accounts and
match what individuals would put in; 15 percent to Medicare which would
help keep that program funded to 2020; and the rest to the discretionary
programs, Defense, Education, etc. He stated that Congress appears to agree
that steps should be taken to protect Social Security, but there still
is no consensus on how to accomplish that.
2. SSI - The main goal is to improve the management of the program. A plan was developed last year and are in the process of implementing this currently. 3. Disability - This is the biggest outlay of SSA’s administrative costs. Each year $75 billion in benefits are paid out to 10 million people. Two million people apply for disability benefits each year. Several areas being considered in the area of disability are: A. Processing of the claims; B. Research study over next three to five years to do physical exams on a sample of the population receiving disability benefits; C. Creation of a Research Institute for disability similar to the two created for retirement in Boston and Michigan; D. Integrity of the program - This deals with more oversight and tightening up on fraud investigations. Disability Redesign Plan: As the Commissioner looked at the existing program and the various options, one message that became abundantly clear is that SSA needs to focus on having a better quality product up-front and a better quality review process. The plan will impact on all components working with disability: A. Field Offices - More emphasis needs to be placed on educating the public about return-to-work incentives and focus on better training of the employees so that they have a better understanding of the disability program to better educate the public as they come in the door; B. DDSs - Move towards dropping the recon. The plan is to prototype in 10 states and then roll-out nationally. The states were picked to get a cross-representation across regions, large and small states, different systems, and some experience already working with the pilots. SDM, PDI and rationales are part of the new process, while AO is eliminated; C. OHA - SSA realizes that, with dropping reconsiderations, more cases will be getting to OHA. Therefore, they are looking to implement many of the process improvements and streamline initiatives proposed by the Wright group and hope to have process improvements in all OHA offices within two years, not just the prototype states although that is where they will start first; D. Appeals Council - Cases from FPM studies are now working their way through the but it will be about a year before any definite decisions can be made reference elimination of that review. E. Systems: In the area of systems, SSA is working to develop a standard for an electronic folder so that, once data is in the systems, it can be electronically moved around. DDSs will be allowed to go with the software they have been using and make adjustments to move the data on the "electronic highway." The Field Office software, tested in Virginia, will be rolled out for use in the FOs nationally. They will also be focusing on developing software for OHA, with emphasis on the hearing scheduling portion. F. Quality Assurance: There currently is a massive debate on whether the focus needs to be front-end vs. back-end review and how to accomplish this. Mr. Dyer was accompanied by James Everett - his Deputy and Carolyn Plunkeett - who is a participant in the Advanced Leadership Program and was “shadowing” Mr. Dyer that week. |
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