Change is coming to the Social Security Disability program based upon the The 2016 Trustees Report that was published this week. It projects that the future finances of the Social Security Disability Trust Fund will require additional funding to remain solvent.
Showing posts with label SSDI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SSDI. Show all posts
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Friday, July 24, 2015
Social Security Disability Solvency: The Backbone of Workers' Compensation
The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) system is estimated to run out of money in 2016 and the consequences, if not patched-up by legislation, are going to critical to the nation's patchwork of workers' compensation programs. Since its inception over 50 years ago, SSDI has been the safety net, especially in reserve offset states. It is the backbone of a program to support injured workers.
Over the decades, for numerous economic, social and political factors, the nation's workers' compensation program has continued to diminish in it's ability to deliver as intended. Both the medical and indemnity components have been difficult to obtain, and have restricted what they do deliver.
Over the decades, for numerous economic, social and political factors, the nation's workers' compensation program has continued to diminish in it's ability to deliver as intended. Both the medical and indemnity components have been difficult to obtain, and have restricted what they do deliver.
Monday, August 4, 2014
CMS: "The Smarter Act" Introduced in the US Senate
From the folks that brought you The Smart Act comes the sequel, "The Smarter Act." Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) on July 31, 2014 introduced, S.2731 - "A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for the application of Medicare secondary payer rules to certain workers' compensation settlement agreements and qualified Medicare set-aside provisions."
As you recall, since the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) was enacted in November 1980 to stop workers' compensation insurance carriers from shifting costs onto US taxpayers, there has been a constant volley of activity between the Federal government, and those who want to maintain a status quo, ie. employers, insurance carriers and "other" financially interested participants.
Congress and Medicare (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS]), in an effort to shore up the financially ailing Medicare program has been dueling with an employer/insurance company led coalition. The coalition successfully lobbied for The Smart Act in May 2003. Mandated regulations were published and the stakeholders, including the coalition partners filed multiple comments objecting to the process.
Purportedly S.2731 requires CMS to establish criteria: for review, calculations, time periods, appeals process, delivery of reimbursement, and immunity form retroactive laws/regulations.
The latest round of coalition supported legislation is yet another attempt to curb the tidal wave that continues to erode the workers' compensation program as it historically existed since 1911 in the US.
The real challenge to workers' compensation and its potential extinction, is whether the visionaries can look forward instead of backward. The future will be solutions to Medicare's fiscal integrity, the integration of the Affordable Care Act, preventive health care, safer workplaces and globalization of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) system.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The First Social Program Bankruptcy is Upon Us
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| The Hon. David Langham |
In May, the Fiscal Times reported that Social Security Disability is in financial trouble. Hardly news, that has been heard for years and has been either ignored or given lip service. No real solutions have been brought to the table. Unfortunately, in America issues with disability programs like Social Security and workers' compensation tend to get attention when there is a crisis.
What is news is that the sky is perhaps falling more rapidly than they predicted. The Fiscal Times says that the SSDI cash flow will run dry in 2016. Their prediction leads to the conclusion that this is no longer a problem that can be kicked down the road to the next group of elected representatives. The insolvency will either be dealt with or the repercussions felt in the next Congress.
According to the Fiscal Times in May 2014, eleven million Americans are receiving Social Security Disability (SSDI). According to Census.gov the U.S. population is about 318 million, so about three percent of the population is receiving SSDI.
The average SSDI recipient is drawing...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Related articles
Florida's Pace is Impressive (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Detroit's Bankruptcy Signals a Failure in Disability Compensation Programs in the US (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Its Déjà Vu All Over Again (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Constitutional Challenges New and Old, From Florida to Oklahoma (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Florida Workers' Compensation FIlings Continue to Decrease (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Thursday, October 24, 2013
“Lamestream Media” Enables Right-Wing Talking Points About Social Security Disability
Today's post comes from guest author Jay Causey, from Causey Law Firm.
By Jay Causey from Causey Law Firm
- - Screen Shot from Fair.org
Just in time for a scheduled meeting of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs to discuss the status of the Social Security Disability program (SSDI) on October 7th, on Sunday, October 6, CBS’ popular “news” show, 60 Minutes, aired "Disability USA" - a sensationalized program full of misleading and largely anecdotal information designed to convince viewers the program is riddled with fraud and on the brink of collapse. If you watched this program, and it is your sole source of information about Social Security Disability, you know essentially nothing about the actual operation of the program. You heard not a single word from disability recipients, their advocates, or from officials who administer the program, none of whom were invited to participate in the 60 Minutes piece.
...the 60 Minutes segment focused on some fraud in the program in one impoverished area of the country in order to paint disability recipients generally as the undeserving poor, slackers and frauds.
First, listening to the program you might not have understood that the average monthly benefit of about $1100 is not tax-payer money but earned credits for money paid into the system by the disabled worker. Then, in terms of the “shocking” growth of the disability rolls you heard CBS’s Steve Kroft and Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma natter on about, you didn’t hear that the statistical growth of the program is a direct function of the increase in population over the past 30 years, the aging of the baby-boomer population into their higher disability years, the entry of women into the work force in greater numbers, and similar demographic factors. Finally, you likely came away from the program thinking that qualifying for SSDI is a cakewalk, when the actual standards for disability result in denial of two-thirds of all applications, only 10% of those denials being reversed on appeal, and an overall figure of about 41% of applicants ultimately qualifying.
Completely ignored in this puff-piece for the right wing (Coburn is the lead Republican on the Senate Subcommittee for Investigations and has a long-standing, well-documented hostility to Social Security) is the shifting of responsibility for disability from workers’ compensation systems, where it properly belongs, to the Social Security Disability program because of the rollbacks in coverage and benefits in states’ workers’ comp programs across the country, all driven by right-wing and corporate interests. So, while SSDI faces potential exhaustion of its funds in the next few years (although this can be – and in the past has been – remedied by shifting funds from the Social Security old-age program), the liability insurance industry, which includes workers’ compensation carriers, is enjoying record profits over the last two years.
Similarly unmentioned was the impact of the worst economy in decades, shrinking the ability of disabled workers to find less physically challenging work.
As is typically the case with these types of “news” pieces, the 60 Minutes segment focused on some fraud in the program in one impoverished area of the country in order to paint disability recipients generally as the undeserving poor, slackers and frauds. CBS could have moderated the potential negative impact of its program by including interviews of SSA program officials or of spokespersons from some two dozen national disability advocacy organizations who asked to be heard on this show. It shamefully chose to ignore all such requests, and has diminished itself accordingly as a news organization.
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