Speier said the agency should come up with a system to review cases from
“red-flag” judges who show inclinations toward rubber-stamping
applications.
In an exhaustive 11-page memo to
Social Security
acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin, she detailed nearly a
dozen recommendations for improving a disability system that has
received an explosion of applications in recent years and is in danger
of going bankrupt by 2016.
It was indefensible that the Social Security Administration (SSA) hasn’t reviewed applications
approved by two administrative law judges,
David B. Daugherty in West
Virginia and
Charles Bridges in Pennsylvania, who have been accused of
making bogus disability determinations.
Kia Anderson, a spokeswoman for
Social Security, said the SSA takes fraud seriously and will review the lawmakers’ recommendations.
“We
recognize that one case of fraud is too many and work aggressively to
detect and prevent abuses. We continue to enhance our program integrity
efforts by adding tools like data analytics which enables us to identify
patterns of suspicious behavior in disability applications,” she said.
She made a pitch for Congress to grant more funding so the SSA can put more effort into preventing fraud.
The
oversight committee has been looking into the disability issue for some
time and took testimony from
Judge Jasper J. Bede, an SSA
Regional Chief Administrative Law Judge who told investigators that some judges
appeared to be rubber-stamping applications. (Read more at
http://www.amazon.com/socialNsecurity-Confessions-Social-Security-Judge/dp/1449569757)
Judge
Bede singled out
Judge Bridges, who decided more than 2,000 cases a
year and who often went beyond looking at an applicant’s disability and
considered income or other factors.
Judge Daugherty, meanwhile,
approved 99.7 percent of his cases from 2005 through 2011, awarding
disability benefits to 8,413 people — the equivalent of $2.5 billion in
total lifetime benefits.
Major cases of disability fraud have been reported in West Virginia,
Puerto Rico and, most recently, New York City, where investigators said
police officers falsely claimed disability from the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks.
Some of those New York cases were exposed in
part because investigators found online photos of the officers engaged
in flying helicopters, going on deep-sea sport-fishing trips and riding
personal watercraft.
That is one reason lawmakers want
Social Security
employees to
scour social media before approving applications, and
again when they go back for periodic checks, known as continuing
disability reviews (CDR).
“To increase efficiency and reduce the number
of erroneous disability determinations, SSA personnel should be allowed
to review each applicant’s social media accounts prior to the decision
to award benefits. Additionally, we suggest that SSA require that all
CDRs incorporate a review of the beneficiary’s social media accounts,”
Ms. Speier said.
Social Security
has repeatedly refused to let its investigators use social media,
arguing that its judges aren’t trained to evaluate the information.
“Adjudicators
should do what they are trained to do: Review voluminous files to
determine eligibility for disability benefits. Office of Inspector
General fraud investigators should do what they are trained to do:
vigorously follow up on any evidence of fraud,” said Ms. Anderson.
From 2010 through 2012, Americans filed 8.6 million disability claims, but judges and
Social Security’s
disability review office reported only 411 suspicions of fraud. That
works out to fewer than one out of every 20,000 applications.
Part of the problem is that Social Security is lax in reviewing cases of those deemed temporarily disabled to see whether they have recovered.
But
a review of cases from 1980 through 1983 found
40 percent of those
receiving disability benefits were not disabled, suggesting a tremendous
level of bad payments.
Disability judges who have high approval
rates send up
red flags because by the time a case gets to an
administrative law judge, it has already been denied by at least one
previous review at the State DDS, and often by a second DDS review, the two lawmakers said.
That would suggest the approval rate for those cases should be low.
Social Security
is made up of two trust funds. The main one is the Old Age and
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, with the Disability Insurance Trust Fund
accounting for a smaller but growing part of the agency’s work.
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