Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

November/December, 1997

House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security
Pam Mazerski, Professional Staff
by Leslie Hendren, Texas DDS

OUR SPEAKER WAS EMPLOYED BY the Social Security Administration (SSA) as a Social Insurance Specialist and as a Claims Representative until May, 1997, when she was hired by the House Subcommittee on Social Security. The current concerns of the Subcommittee will be the agenda items for the next session. The hottest topics include the future SSA and the fact that the disability program has grown out of proportion with budgeted resources. From 1986 to 1995, the rolls grew almost 70 per cent to 7.5 million. New SSDI and SSI disability awardees are, on average, younger and younger. This means they will spend more of their lives on the disability rolls -- unless Congress acts to prevent that. The Subcommittee held seven hearings on the future of SSA last year. These hearings featured the following topics: the Appeals Council, the Board of Trustees, similar programs in other countries, policy experts, business and labor, and concerns of the members of Congress. Members of Congress hear more from their constituents on SSA than any other issue. The bottom line is that the trust fund solvency is the responsibility of Congress. It is understood that the implementation of Disabled Children (DC) legislation has had a tremendous effect on the DDS workload. DC welfare reform continues to draw criticism. The General Accounting Office (GAO) asked if the implementation was as Congress intended; they found that yes, actions have been in line with the intent of the law as passed. “Return to Work” legislation has also been of interest to the Subcommittee. Representative Jim Bunning, Chair, (R-KY) introduced HR 4230, Rehabilitation - Return to work Opportunity Act in 1996. He is currently working on related legislation to be introduced in the next session. Barbara B. Kennelly, (D-CT) has introduced legislation as well, HR 543, the “Transition to Work Act.” Currently opportunities and incentives for rehabilitation and return to productive employment don’t really exist. In fact, SSA’s record on rehabilitation is poor. Of the 6.6 million working age people receiving SSI and SSDI benefits in 1995, only four percent were even referred for rehabilitation -- and only 6,238, or less than one tenth of one percent, were successfully rehabilitated. A July, 1997 hearing explored barriers that beneficiaries face if they return to work. Discussion involved:

1) allowing beneficiaries their choice of services,

2) allowing choice of providers, and

3) providing health insurance.

GAO has also looked at the computer readiness of SSA for the year 2000. Their report showed that beneficiaries are at risk. Private contractors were hired to study computer readiness and reported problems which would disrupt the disability process. GAO has also taken up a second phase review of SSA’s redesign. They are most concerned with decisional disparity within SSA. CDR’s are also a concern. Congress wants to ensure that only the disabled remain on the rolls. They are looking into the Medical Improvement Review Standard (MIRS) exception; is it used? Ms. Mazerski asked the audience to respond to this question with most participants indicating that the use of exceptions was discouraged, if not by the POMS, by the review components of SSA. The speaker confirmed that Representative Bunning is seeking election to the Senate. The future chair of the Subcommittee is not clear at this time. It is dependent upon who is placed on the Subcommittee and who has seniority.