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Social Security Disability has denial quotas

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kitesandtrainsandcats
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26 May 2023, 12:17 pm

I remember my own denial appeal hearing about 20 years ago where Social Security Disability's own doctor expert witness they sent looked at my stuff and said I should have never been denied.

And then I look at this going on and think, And people want single payer health care funded by this same Federal Government? Umm, NO.

Washington Post
Judges rebuke Social Security for errors as disability denials stack up
Lisa Rein
Thu, May 25, 2023 at 1:46 PM CDT · 16 min read

https://news.yahoo.com/judges-rebuke-so ... 28137.html

Quote:
The high rate of rejections for cases handled by administrative law judges and the attorneys who write their decisions is driven by stringent monthly quotas set by Social Security officials and growing pressure to deny more cases, according to current and former officials, audits and attorneys who represent the disabled. The agency's policies have been reshaped to give less deference to the expertise of doctors who, in some cases, have treated claimants for years, and its policies routinely depart from federal appellate court rulings.


Quote:
Administrative law judges and their representatives also acknowledge that the system is flawed. Som Ramrup, president of the organization that represents 1,084 Social Security judges not in management, cited the sustained imposition of monthly case quotas as the "number one reason" behind the high rate of remands. Each judge schedules up to 600 cases a year, according to Ramrup and other administrative law judges.

"The judges strive to issue quality decisions, but they certainly are encouraged to rush," Ramrup said. "When you're rushing, it's not going to be perfect. It's a business decision [by the agency] to say, 'that's an acceptable remand rate to us.'"


Quote:
The Supreme Court has allowed vocational experts to refuse to disclose how they come up with jobs a claimant could still do or how many exist in the economy. An internal panel that must consider appeals before they go to federal court sent just 12 percent back to administrative law judges last year.

These policies have exasperated federal judges.


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goldfish21
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26 May 2023, 3:01 pm

Yeah, that's nuts.

Dunno if we have denial quotas here, but it seems that Medical Doctors are pretty good gatekeepers of the system. I've heard of people inquiring about getting onto disability and being told by their MD that there is no medical reason they cannot work and so they refuse to sign the forms. Sure, they have some lingering effects from illness/surgery, but they're not incapable of working and just don't Want to. (One of the laziest young people I've ever known.)

Others get onto disability by bsing, but there are probably some who should be able to be on it that aren't.. I just have never heard of a denial quota. Usually the medical denials that people ever hear about are ultra expensive drugs or treatments that aren't approved by Health Canada or something like that and cost an absolute fortune to try to save a life - and those cases are rarely in the news.. like once every couple years maybe that I can recall.

Pretty crazy just how much has to be denied to citizens in order to have the funds to carpet bomb other countries year in and year out. I know this is disability and not healthcare, but it's pretty nuts that the system in the USA costs the most money per capita while fewer people get actual healthcare and people are unhealthy. Too many layers of middlemen skimming profits for no added value hyperinflating healthcare costs + a culture of paying Doctors & Specialists obscene amounts of money. Works pretty good for the haves!


Single payer could at least be designed & administered by Canadians who have some experience in how to do this better. Hell, I'll draw up the plans and tell all the greedy pigs who think they should profit for no reason to f**k right off. :D


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