I know from personal experience how difficult Social Security’s
disability process can be. When my father was 52, he suffered a
severe cerebral hemorrhage caused by a rare form of brain
cancer. As I took care of the application for him, it opened my
eyes to the complicated rules associated with our disability
programs.
Each year, approximately 2.5 million people apply for Social
Security disability benefits. On average, one-third of them are
approved upon initial application, which takes an average of
three months for a decision. But for those who are denied and
appeal the decision to the hearing level, it can take a long
time to receive a decision – much too long, in my opinion.
Right now, there are more than 750,000 cases waiting for a
hearing and the average time to get a hearing decision is 499
days. Pending hearings have doubled since 2001. In addition,
the number of applications for disability benefits has been
extraordinarily high throughout the last seven years and we can
expect it to be even higher in the coming years.
Social Security’s disability programs have grown significantly
over the last seven years and will continue to do so at an
increasing rate as aging baby boomers reach their most
disability-prone years. At the same time, Congress has added
new and non-traditional workloads to Social Security’s
responsibilities. As a result, the agency is struggling to
balance those new responsibilities with its core workloads under
tight resource constraints.
That’s why I’ve made improving the disability determination
process my top priority. It is our most pressing challenge.
Last year I appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to
present an aggressive plan to reduce the backlog and improve the
disability process. These new initiatives will eliminate the
hearings backlog and prevent it from recurring. Let me give you
just a few examples.
The first is the Quick Disability Determination (QDD), a process
based on a computer model that allows us to screen cases with a
high potential for approval. The QDD process has proved highly
successful in the Boston region, and the average processing time
now is just 8 days. On September 5, 2007, the agency issued a
final rule extending QDD nationwide. By the end of this month,
every state will be processing QDD cases and about 5% of all
allowances will be handled through QDD.
The second, Compassionate Allowances, is a way of quickly
identifying medical conditions that invariably qualify under our
listings. In these cases, which are often rare diseases
unfamiliar to reviewers, allowances will be made as soon as the
diagnosis is confirmed. In December 2007, we held the first
public hearing on this initiative and will hold three more
hearings this year. You can learn more about compassionate
allowances at
www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.
In addition, Social Security has opened a National Hearing
Center (NHC). The NHC allows the agency to capitalize on new
technologies such as electronic disability folders and video
teleconferencing and gives needed flexibility to address the
country’s worst backlogs. We also are hiring 175 new
Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), the largest group of new ALJs
ever hired by Social Security in a single year. We expect to
start bringing these ALJs on board in the spring.
These are but a few of the many initiatives the agency has
underway. When it comes to eliminating disability backlogs,
there is no single magic bullet. But with additional staff,
enhanced business processes and improved ways of fast-tracking
targeted cases, I believe we can improve the disability process
and waiting times.
