To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Revamp Social Security Disability Determination
Please initiate legislation to save tax dollars by 1) identifying Social Security Disability beneficiaries who are actually able to work and terminating their benefits and 2) revamping the Disability Determination process to redirect efforts from repetitive often inaccurate paperwork and routine appeals to direct contact between applicant and disability determination staff, thus dramatically increasing expediency and accuracy and reducing appeals from the norm to occasional.
Why is this important?
The present disability determination process is inaccurate. Full of paperwork & repetition. Physician reports are normally completed by non professional office staff "interpreting" physician files. Determinations are made by team members who have no personal knowledge of the capabilities & limitations of the applicant. Determination reports often contain damaging errors.
In my case, my letter of denial cited a report from a doctor & location I never heard of. Among other discrepancies in the letter, it was stated that I had a sound memory. My application made 13 references to my poor memory. I phoned my contact person to inform her of the errors. Her response was insistent & firm: That's what the team decided; you can appeal. I was reporting a decision based on blatantly false information - errors on their part; but still had to go through the routine appeal process. Nonchalant staff incompetency cost me big time: I lost my life savings & lost precious time in slowing progression of another medical condition that was developing. While I waited, actually ineligible applicants began receiving benefits.
Disability determination reform will save billions of tax dollars now spent on fraudulent beneficiaries & needless repetitive ineffective processes, & will greatly expedite the provision of medical care & basic needs income to those who are actually unable to work. Staff & resources need to be redirected from incessant repetitive paperwork, mailings, & appeals to direct contact between applicants & staff, requiring only one swift decision based on actual fact.
At this point the vast majority of legitimate applicants end up appealing initial applications twice before being approved. Worse yet, some applicants who clearly can't hold a job, run out of appeals & must wait to submit another initial application & go through the whole process again. Citizens who have worked & paid taxes & become unable to work deserve an accurate timely disability determination process. Tax payers shouldn't have to pay taxes for inefficient repetitive determinations & for Social Security Income & Medicare for hundreds of thousands of ineligible beneficiaries. Please help me convince the White House & Congress to begin taking action - to go after beneficiary fraud & revamp the disability determination process. Of note: going after Medicare Provider fraud has already saved billions of dollars. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION NOW.
In my case, my letter of denial cited a report from a doctor & location I never heard of. Among other discrepancies in the letter, it was stated that I had a sound memory. My application made 13 references to my poor memory. I phoned my contact person to inform her of the errors. Her response was insistent & firm: That's what the team decided; you can appeal. I was reporting a decision based on blatantly false information - errors on their part; but still had to go through the routine appeal process. Nonchalant staff incompetency cost me big time: I lost my life savings & lost precious time in slowing progression of another medical condition that was developing. While I waited, actually ineligible applicants began receiving benefits.
Disability determination reform will save billions of tax dollars now spent on fraudulent beneficiaries & needless repetitive ineffective processes, & will greatly expedite the provision of medical care & basic needs income to those who are actually unable to work. Staff & resources need to be redirected from incessant repetitive paperwork, mailings, & appeals to direct contact between applicants & staff, requiring only one swift decision based on actual fact.
At this point the vast majority of legitimate applicants end up appealing initial applications twice before being approved. Worse yet, some applicants who clearly can't hold a job, run out of appeals & must wait to submit another initial application & go through the whole process again. Citizens who have worked & paid taxes & become unable to work deserve an accurate timely disability determination process. Tax payers shouldn't have to pay taxes for inefficient repetitive determinations & for Social Security Income & Medicare for hundreds of thousands of ineligible beneficiaries. Please help me convince the White House & Congress to begin taking action - to go after beneficiary fraud & revamp the disability determination process. Of note: going after Medicare Provider fraud has already saved billions of dollars. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION NOW.