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March 31, 2006 at 03:14 PM
The Social Security Administration is trying to revamp the process it uses to evaluate individuals who apply for Social Security disability insurance benefits.
The SSA describes the changes today in a final rule published in the Federal Register.
The Social Security disability insurance program is important to private disability insurers, because private disability insurers use contracts that permit them to subtract SSDI payments from the benefits payments that they must make to their claimants.
The SSA will be increasing use of an electronic claims administration system, phasing out the current disability system appeals court, and adding 2 new layers of review, agency officials write in the preamble to the new final rule.
Once the new regulations take effect, a federal reviewing official will review initial disability determination services’ decisions, and a national Decision Review Board will try to correct errors and increase uniformity, officials write.
In the past, critics have said that each Social Security disability region has seemed to follow its own rules.
Another change will be a pilot program to test the concept of encouraging disability beneficiaries to work by letting the beneficiaries continue to collect some benefits even after their earnings exceed a threshold called the “substantial gainful activity level.” Today, severely disabled beneficiaries who try to return to work risk losing all benefits payments and, eventually, Medicare health insurance, once their earnings cross the threshold, SSA officials write.
