HR 5110 Should be Passed by Congress

The legislation recently introduced in Congress by Congressman Higgins, posted below today, would require the Social Security Administration to provide details of hearing backlogs to Congress by Congressional District.   Members of Congress, who increasingly receive requests for help from disabled applicants, would have information to evaluate the level of performance by the Social Security Administration given its actual resources and would then be in a better position to craft legislation and allocate additional resources.

Acknowledging that it takes government employees to deliver the services, HR 5110 also requires the Social Security Administration to report on staffing levels by exact job titles and number of staff at each hearing office and field office.  The annual budget information as to number of employees also requires that the Social Security Administration provide employment statistics:  “[f]or each field office, for each preceding year after 1979, including the number of employees hired, retired, transferred in and out, and dismissed during such year.”

Although some might regard the detail required by HR 5110 as micro-managing the hugh Social Security Administration, even with the reporting required by this legislation, the Social Security Administration would still be able to transfer cases from one hearing office or state disability determinations service office to another as Social Security representatives know only too well.  For example, Social Security recently transferred a large number of hearing office cases from Ohio to the Boston hearing office.  One would think that whenever cases are transferred into an office, its own workload would suffer (the local office workload might even be transferred out!).

Congressman Higgins should amend his legislation to require reporting on case transfers from one hearing or disability determinations service office to another (in and out of Congressional Districts).

The administrators of the Social Security Administration when attention is called to their shortcomings are quick to fashion a response.  The best interest of the disabled applicant is not necessarily the ultimate consideration.  For example, when responding to scrutiny regarding the long delays at the hearing office level, the Social Security Administration counts dismissals (along with actual decisions) as “dispositions.”  At the same time, in my opinion as a former employee of the hearings office, the Social Security Administration should do a better job of establishing formal procedures to attempt to contact claimants who do not respond to a notice of hearing.

I strongly recommend that Congressman Higgins’ bill be passed with the amendment that I proposed here.  I will be writing my Congressman to support this legislation, and I urge you to write to yours as well.

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Congressional Bill to Attack Hearing Office Backlog

This is the text of legislation introducted by Congressman Brian Higgins of New York that, among other things, requires the Social Security Administration to detail reports on Hearing Office backlogs according to Congressional District.

 

110th CONGRESS –  2d Session

To amend title VII of the Social Security Act to require the President to transmit the annual budget of the Social Security Administration without revisions to Congress, and for other purposes.

 

January 23, 2008

Mr. HIGGINS (for himself, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. BACA, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. MCNERNEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ARCURI, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, and Mr. ELLISON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

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To amend title VII of the Social Security Act to require the President to transmit the annual budget of the Social Security Administration without revisions to Congress, and for other purposes.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

 

SECTION 1. AMENDING SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION BUDGETARY MATTERS.

 

(a) Annual Budget- Section 704(b)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 904(b)(1)(A)) is amended to read as follows:

 

`(b)(1)(A) The Commissioner shall prepare and submit an annual budget estimate for the Administration directly to the President and Congress.’.

 

(b) Contents of Budget- Section 704(b)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 904(b)(1)(B)) is amended to read as follows:

 

`(B) The Commissioner shall include in the annual budget prepared pursuant to subparagraph (A) the following:

 

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  `(i) An itemization of the amount of funds required by the Administration to combat fraud committed by applicants and beneficiaries.

 

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  `(ii) The total number of cases pending at each hearing office, listed by hearing office, and an aggregate total of all cases pending at all hearing offices.

 

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  `(iii) The total number of cases pending for over the preceding year at each hearing office, listed by both hearing office and presiding administrative judge, and an aggregate total of all cases pending for over such year at all hearing offices.

 

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  `(iv) The average duration of time to process each case at each hearing office, listed by hearing office.

 

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  `(v) The staffing levels at each hearing office and field office, including a listing of job titles, classifications, and the number of staff within each title and classification.

 

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  `(vi) Employment statistics for each field office, for each preceding year after 1979, including the number of employees hired, retired, transferred in and out, and dismissed during such year.’.

 

(c) Closure of Field Offices- Section 704(b)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 904(b)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

 

`(C) The Commissioner may not close or otherwise limit public access to a field office of the Administration until 180 days after the date on which the Commissioner submits to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate a detailed report outlining and justifying the process for selecting field offices to be closed or otherwise have limited access. Such report shall include–

 

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  `(i) an analysis of the criteria used for selecting field offices for closure or limited access and how the Commissioner analyzes and considers factors relating to transportation and communication burdens faced by seniors and the disabled;

 

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  `(ii) a cost-benefit analysis for each field office closure that takes into account–

 

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  •  
    `(I) the anticipated savings as a result of the closure;

 

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    `(II) the anticipated burdens, including communication and transportation burdens, placed on elderly and disabled citizens; and

 

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    `(III) the anticipated costs associated with replacing the services lost by the closure.’.

 

(d) Comprehensive Work Force Plan- Section 704(b)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 904(b)(2)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the following: `Not later than 90 days before a revision of the comprehensive work force plan, the Commissioner shall submit the document setting forth the revision to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate.’.

 A BILL

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H. R. 5110

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

 

Issue Tracking System

  

A modern conveniences I have come to rely on is the Issue Tracking System used by software companies and Internet service companies, such as the virus protection companies and web hosting companies.  See the entry in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tracking_system.

 

No human being is perfect, and no service is perfect.  But with an Issue Tracking System ticket, you have proof of your place in the queue and the formality of your problem or question.  You have proof that you called and you can document whether your problem was resolved or not.

The article in Wikipedia describes the system (as typically involving a computer user) as follows:  A ticket is a file contained within a issue tracking system which contains information about support interventions made by technical support staff or third parties on behalf of an end user who has reported an incident that is preventing them from working with their computer as they would expect to be able to. Tickets are commonly created in a help desk or call center environment. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue or call log number which is used to allow the user or support staff to quickly locate, add to or communicate the status of the users issue or request.

I had a recent experience in trying to set up new services where there was no Issue Tracking System in place with my former telephone and Internet provider in which everything went wrong.  I quickly realized that I was at great disadvantage because I could not refer to an Issue Tracking System ticket. 

 

In my consumer-complaint letter to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Consumer Division, I suggested that if the company could not demonstrate improvements in its customer service that adoption of a problem-tracking-system be mandated.

 

On reflection, I think the Issue Tracking System should be required of telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses. Communication and information access are services that many of us expect and rely upon and for which we pay high rates.  The telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses are near-monopolies.   With multi-million dollar compensation packages for chief executives, the elimination of lifetime job protection and the deceased or non-existence of morale of many employees, customer service is not a guarantee.

 

Initially legislation should permit the businesses to designs their own Issue Tracking Systems subject to government audit.

 

If this solutions works with the telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses maybe it could be tried on government agencies.  Even Social Security and Medicare.

  

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.