Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

May/June 2001

Enhanced Disability Training for CR Trainees
by Roy Morgan, Philadelphia SSA Regional Office

Have you noticed an improvement in the SSA-3368s you’re receiving from the Field Offices lately? Have you spoken to some of the new Claims Representatives out there and found that they have a better understanding of the disability program? If you have, it just may be due to a program that’s been initiated in the Philadelphia Region through the efforts of the Regional Office Center for Disability Programs (CDP), Employee Training and Development Team (ETDT), the six Disability Determinations Services in the Region, the Field Offices and the six Area Offices in the Region.

For about a year now, the DDSs have been providing “Enhanced Disability Training” for the CR trainees after they complete their formal SSA CR training program. For years, we have felt that CRs didn’t receive adequate training in the disability program. Their training program is quite extensive, but focuses on the technical issues involved in retirement and survivors programs, benefit authorization and the complex SSA computer system. They receive a very short course in disability. Since there weren’t many encouraging signs that SSA was going to change the program significantly, we in the CDP, primarily through the efforts of our Director, Kate Thornton, began an effort to provide additional disability training. The goals of this training are an improved understanding of the program for the CRs, an appreciation for how the DDS operates and uses the information they provide, and an improvement in that information through more thoroughly completed forms.

After much planning and many meetings, the plan was launched in late 1999 with the initial goal of preparing the Pennsylvania FOs for the redesign prototype. It was known that the DDS would face a struggle with the new process, so it was essential to improve the information being received at the outset to alleviate as much stress as possible. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Disability Determination (BDD) grabbed the opportunity and ran with it, designing the original training package that has been refined and is the model used by other DDSs as the process has been rolled out.

The design of the program calls for the CR trainees to attend a day and a half of training in the DDS within a few weeks of completing the formal SSA IVT training course. In decentralized states, efforts are made for the trainees to attend at the branch their home FO serves. On the first day, most of the time is spent on classroom-type training under the instruction of DDS and FO personnel. The importance of the 3368 and 3367 are stressed and the trainees are shown videotape of the IVT broadcast on completion of the 3368. This is followed by a discussion, with examples, of “good” and “bad” 3368s taken from actual case samples.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon are spent on formal body system training discussing signs, symptoms, medications, tests, and observations for the three most common body systems: cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and mental. The Philadelphia Regional Disability Interview Guide, which each trainee has as a desk aid, is used to guide them through the training, which familiarizes them with the guide and gets them used to using it for interviews. Following the body system training, they again review and discuss the “good” and “bad” 3368s seen earlier in the day and practice exercises are provided on forms completion.

The second day is designed to familiarize the trainees with the DDS operation and the daily routine of adjudicators. The trainees are given a tour of the facility and then actually sit with an adjudicator for a couple of hours, observing the processing of claims and, perhaps most importantly, how the information they have provided the adjudicator is being used. After the observation period, the group reconvenes for wrap-up and dismissal. Each is asked to complete an evaluation form.

The trainees do not leave empty-handed and this is not the end of the process. As the process has been rolled out to the other states, the general format has been retained and local supplements have been added. Each trainee leaves with copies of the training material which include a print out of the CDP website homepage, copies of local (DDS) interview questionnaires (i.e., daily activities, pain, DA&A, etc.), and a copy of the Philadelphia Regional Directory which includes addresses and phone numbers for the Regional Office (Regional Commissioner and OHA), DDSs, Field Offices and all OHA sites.

Each trainee is given a “FO to DDS Checklist Workflow” sheet which serves as a guide for the trainees when they return to the FO. Prior to sending a case to the DDS, the new CR completes the checklist and files it in the blue section of the claims folder. When the folder is received by the DDS adjudicator, the folder is reviewed and the “DDS to FO Response” section of the form is completed. The checklist is then given to the DDS unit supervisor who forwards it to the training coordinator at the DDS. Copies are made for future training needs and the original returned to the FO for review by the manager and CR. Through this process, feedback is provided to the trainees and data is collected to evaluate effectiveness of the program.

Through the end of 2000, 133 trainees had gone through the program. Feedback from the trainers and trainees has been totally positive. Trainees feel they have a much better understanding of the needs of the DDS and greater knowledge of the body systems. They are more familiar with the desk aids provided them and leave the training with an excitement about conducting more productive and efficient interviews. Reports from the field note marked improvement in the quality of the 3368s sent in by the field offices. By all accounts, this endeavor has been successful and will continue. Our long-term goal is to also provide this training to the journeymen CRs in the region over the next couple of years. This will require special efforts by the FOs and the DDSs, but, without doubt, those efforts will be worthwhile.