Dallas, Texas Social Security Disability Blog

The Social Security Administration boasts that they are approving more applications now than ever before, reporting that over the past 10 years, the number of approvals has risen sharply. What they won't tell you is that the number of people applying for disability benefits has increased faster than the number of cases approved. Consequently, although the volume of approvals is increasing, the percentage of approvals is at an all-time low. Consider that since 2000, the Administration's approval rate has dropped a shocking 11 percentage points from 46.7% to only 35.7% . According to the Administration's own records, disability approvals have not been this low since1982, when the approval rate was 33%.^[1]

The backlog of applications led senior managers at the Baltimore Social Security Administration (SSA) to have a serious meeting with the agency's physicians. According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, the doctors were told they would be paid $80 per case instead of $90 an hour.

Considering that a review of a Social Security disability case often takes 60 to 90 minutes, the message essentially was that the doctors needed to work faster. It was also determined that doctors could work outside of their areas of expertise, thus eye doctors could be assigned back pain cases, and so forth. Physicians uncomfortable with evaluating cases in certain specialties were given the option of taking brief refresher seminars. For example, physicians unfamiliar with blood diseases could go to an hour long class.

In the months that followed, 45 of the 140 doctors at the agency either resigned or were fired. One doctor from the Baltimore office explained his frustration, "People who shouldn't be getting [disability] are getting it and people who should be getting it aren't getting it." He was not alone in his opinion, many former officials and physicians felt the quality of disability determinations was being threatened by the changes.

October 2^nd through the 9^th 2011 is designated by the United States Congress as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). Several activities across the country are planned to provide information and raise awareness about mental health, as well as reduce the stigma that sometimes prevents people from seeking the treatment they need.

This Saturday, October 8^th, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Austin will be sponsoring a program and 5k walk featuring live music. The free event begins at 9:00 (registration at 8:00) located at W. Riverside and S. 1^st Street. Children and pets are also welcome to participate. Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell will be a special guest.

Since 2008 the Social Security Administration (SSA) has identified those applicants most critically in need of benefits and allowed them to circumvent much of the red tape that ensnares a typical Social Security benefits application to receive benefits rapidly - sometimes in as few as 14 days. The SSA processed 45,000 applications under the Compassionate Allowances program in 2010 and they anticipate doing 65,000 in 2011.

Beginning of the Compassionate Allowances Program

The idea for the Compassionate Allowances program was born in 1985 when now-SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue was attempting to get SSDI benefits for his father, who was struggling with brain cancer. Astrue saw first-hand how those who needed benefits most pressingly were caught in a system bogged down with backlogs and delays. Many applicants died before they received decisions on their applications.

When Astrue became Commissioner in 2007, he designed the Compassionate Allowances program to allow the SSA to process applications for those with certain conditions quickly based upon minimum objective medical criteria that the SSA could obtain without delay from healthcare providers.

He implemented the program in 2008, after holding a series of public outreach hearings and soliciting information from medical professionals and Social Security and Disability Determination offices to determine which conditions should be on the compassionate allowances list. Astrue continues to expand the compassionate allowances list, adding 38 conditions in 2010 and 12 in 2011 as a result of information from public outreach hearings.