Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

July/August 2001

The Alaskan Prototype Experience
by Ken Forbes. Oregon DDS

The panel was made up of people representing the prototype states in the Pacific and Great Plains regions. This included Alaska, California, Colorado and Missouri.

Since no one from the Alaska DDS was able to attend, Rob Isemenger from the Seattle Regional Office related the history and current events in Alaska. He told us that Alaska was originally picked because they were one of the best in the nation in terms of productivity, processing time and quality. All the adjudicators were single decision-makers. The MCs were well into the new role as a consultant and it was also a small state. The Regional Office was able to take all the pending and incoming reconsiderations and ship them to the Federal DDS. There was no pipeline issue. Alaska DDS employees participated in all the Interactive Video Training (IVT) and even contracted for some additional training.

Unfortunately, the cumulative effects of changes caused Alaska to go from one of the most productive DDS in the nation into one of the lower performing DDSs. Staff turnover and lean management structure left little flexibility for adapting.

When problems arose, RO provided assistance in a number of ways. All the CDRs were sent elsewhere. Disability analysts from other states were brought to Alaska to review cases. Clerical assistance was brought in from the FOs. DQB sent staff to assist in processing Alaska cases. RO got funding for two additional adjudicators.

Even though the RO hates the concept of staging cases (receipting but not assigning to the adjudicator right away), they have encouraged Alaska to do so to maximize effectiveness of analysts. The RO recognizes that recovery will take a long time. A lesson we should take away is that SSA needs to set some sort of reasonable case production expectation.

From the DDS perspective, it appears the analysts like the process and the freedom it gives for decision-making. The allowance rate went up and people liked that. Some of the Process Unification requirements were received positively and others badly. Isemenger said one lesson they have learned through the prototype in Alaska is that everyone has to prepare for roll-out, not just the state that will roll-out.