Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

January/February, 1996

NADE Correspondence

To: Chuck Jones
Director DPRT
From: Linda Langele, NADE President
Subject: Comments on the PUTT report of 9 August 1995
Date: September 16, 1995

NADE commends the PUTT on it’s recommendations to improve the disability process. We realize that a simple change to a single presentation of policy or a “one book” will not provide for unification of the disability process. NADE does strongly support the need for a single presentation of adjudicative policy as one of the first steps toward unification. We also support the establishment of a single, cross-component staffed, policy promulgating body. This policy making body as proposed by PUTT will also be an excellent step in the unification process.

NADE feels that the one proposal that will have the most pronounced effect on unification is the establishment of a single review component that will review all levels of adjudication using the same review guidelines and procedures. We feel the PUTT has not gone far enough in it’s recommendations in this area. We feel that the review component should be able to review cases on a pre-adjudicative basis with return and reversal options available. It is also very important that any allowance or denial bias be removed at all levels and that an equal number of allowances and denials be reviewed.

NADE strongly endorses the establishment of a disability court. NADE has historically proposed a disability court as an essential part of any plan to unify the process.

Increased medical training for all components is an essential part of the process. NADE endorses the cross-component aspect of any training on adjudicative policy or medical information. There appears to be a trend in the Reengineering process to reduce the role of the medical consultant as well as placing less emphasis on the medical aspect in adjudication and more emphasis on the legal basis and client satisfaction. NADE supports strengthening the medical basis at all levels of adjudication.

The closure of the record at the date of hearing is an important step in unifying the process. The closure of the record will require the claimants and their representatives to provide a better basis for comparison of decision at all levels. NADE would recommend that the closure of the record at the date of the recon decision would provide even more reasons for cooperation at the initial and recon levels and would then make the ALJ decision a legal decision based on process and not on fact.

NADE further recommends that SSA should take whatever action is necessary to be able to exert administrative control over all adjudicative components, up to and including, modifying the APA. We again recommend retraining and increasing the emphasis on the medical basis for adjudication at all levels.

NADE also recommends that training on adjudicative policy be well timed and cost effective to try and insure maximum impact from the training. The training proposed in the PUTT short term proposals may have been premature and proposed for cosmetic reasons. The proposed training would be more effective after the “one book” placement and additional lead time for preparation and testing is available.

cc: NADE Board