Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
September 08, 2017 at 08:21 AM
Witnesses told members of Congress earlier this week that Social Security Disability Insurance managers should do a better job of helping workers and others use a special SSDI program aimed at workers with a catastrophic health conditions.
The program, the Compassionate Allowance program, has helped about 50,000 people per year with severe medical problems qualify for SSDI benefits quickly since it came to life in 2008, according to Kathryn Larin, a director at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
But the process for deciding which conditions make an applicant eligible for the Compassionate Allowance program is unclear, and disability claim reviewers seem to have some trouble identifying which SSDI claimants qualify for the Compassionate Allowance program, Larin testified Wednesday, at a hearing on the SSDI program organized by the House Ways and Means Committee’s Social Security subcommittee.
(Related: States Roll Out 529 Plans for Disability Expenses)
Getting the Compassionate Allowance screening right is important because that program and a related program, the Quick Disability Determination Program, “provide people with disabilities facing devastating illnesses the security of knowing that they and their families have income to rely on, and remove one worry people face during a very challenging, scary time,” Larin said.
SSDI and Private Disability Insurance
Issuers of private individual and group disability insurance have a strong interest in efforts to strengthen the SSDI program. Some take SSDI claim determinations into account when conducting their own disability insurance claim reviews, and many group disability programs wrap around SSDI benefits. A private issuer may deduct the monthly SSDI benefit amount from the amount of benefits it sends a claimant.
Members of Congress and SSDI managers have worried for years about the solvency of the SSDI program.
Members of Congress, SSDI managers and claimants have worried about delays in claim processing, and in disputes that lead to appeals that can take years to resolve.
(Photo: Thinkstock)
The witnesses at the hearing held Wednesday included Larin; Bea Disman, the acting chief of staff for the Social Security Administration; Lisa Ekman, a representative from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives; Elizabeth McLaren, bureau chief for Iowa Disability Determination Services; and Marilyn Zahm, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges.
House Ways and Means streamed the hearing live on the web. The committee has posted a recording of the hearing, and written versions of the witnesses’ testimony, here.
