Social Security Introduces New Method to Speed up Application Process

With millions of Americans filing for disability claims and financial aids every year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has recently introduced a new method in processing applications that will allow claimants to receive their benefits in a short period of time.

The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is the agency’s newest service to the public that will prevent delays. What used to take months of processing will only take few minutes to complete with this online service.

To allow claimants to file their benefits, NHIN provides online application form that will make it easier and more convenient for Social Security taxpayers compared to going to SSA office personally.

According to SSA officials, the new online service will allow them to improve their service to the public while letting people to participate in the application process.

New Technologies to Aid SSA Backlogs

The long claim process at the Social Security Administration (SSA) had been taking a toll to applicants.

Lack of sufficient manpower had been pointed as one of the reasons for the delays. Seeing the need to address this issue, SSA has adopted significant ways of speeding up the retrieval of medical records in the future. In doing so, delays may be minimized.

In fact, SSA was the first government agency to use Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) to cut down the time to get medical records from weeks or months to only minutes.

SSA had been receiving about three million claims annually and fifteen million requests for medical records. Usually, manual intervention necessitates the retrieval of these records. Hence, delay may take place in such retrieval. With the use of NHIN, claims may be processed quickly.

SSA urged the claimants to do their part in making the disability determination process more efficient. It suggested doing the application for disability benefits online.

Moreover, SSA identified medical codes that match certain medical listings. SSA’s computer system analyzes the data for these codes. In this manner, the process would be quicker and the response would be more immediate.

NHIN, on line application and medical codes were aimed at addressing the growing disability backlog. With these, applicants hope to reap their disability benefits sooner than the usual lengthy process.

Fraud in IHHS

Elderly and disabled people have once contributed, in one way or another, to the improvement and development of society. Seeing the need to compensate them for their services, funds are allotted to their care in case of old age or disability or blindness.

In California, In House Support Services (IHSS) is a program established to cater to the needs of the elderly over 65 years of age, disabled or blind so they can remain safely in their homes. IHSS is considered as an inexpensive alternative to nursing homes or board and care facilities.

Under the program, the care provider is usually the recipient’s family member in order to give twenty-four hour assistance. Services would include doing personal chores, giving personal care, accompanying to medical appointments and supervising.

This year, IHSS has a budget of $5.42 billion to provide care for about 440,000 Californians. The amount may be overwhelming. But sadly, due to fraudulent machinations employed by some unions, some valid claims are not getting attention. Efforts of full time investigators are not at par with the thousands of fraud cases filed before them.

For instance, Los Angeles County has no investigators to ensure the validity of claims. Consequently, it had 800 backlog fraud cases.

This current situation is very disadvantageous to valid claimants. Ineligible claimants are the ones reaping the benefits while qualified applicants are left to wait for available funds or worst none at all.