Ranking Members Larson and Davis Call for Independent Review of Questionable Federalization of Disability Reviews by Trump Officials at Social Security
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Ranking Member Danny K. Davis (IL-07) announced a new request for an independent review by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) decision to federalize continuing disability reviews (CDRs) for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries.
“From the second President Trump and his administration were sworn in, they have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted,” said Ranking Member Larson. “Each year, Social Security conducts more than one million reviews of disability beneficiaries to see if they still qualify for disability benefits. Given this administration’s track record and how much is at stake for disability beneficiaries, we must ensure that we conduct oversight into their plans, so qualified disability beneficiaries are not harmed. As my grandfather Nolan used to say, trust everyone but cut the cards. We will be watching closely to ensure no one is dealt a bad hand from an administration that already tried to kick hundreds of thousands of Americans off the disability benefits they earned through a lifetime of work.”
Every year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) conducts about 1.4 million CDRs to see if beneficiaries have experienced medical improvement. Benefits are terminated only if a full medical review shows a person has improved enough to return to work. While these reviews are necessary for program integrity, they can be complex and hard to navigate. Reviews can cause severe stress because beneficiaries fear losing their primary source of income, often after already waiting a year or more to be approved in the first place. Changes to this process can risk adding to that anxiety, creating new hurdles for people who rely on these benefits, or even qualified beneficiaries losing access to their benefits.
SSA recently announced plans to move full medical CDRs from state Disability Determination Services (DDS) agencies to the federal Disability Case Review (DCR) unit. With people's livelihoods at stake, it is vital that SSA conducts CDRs accurately and fairly so that eligible individuals do not lose their support.
Ranking Members Larson and Davis’s full letter is available HERE. The lawmakers called on GAO to address the following questions:
Did SSA set goals, expected outcomes, and an evaluation plan for the federalization of medical CDRs? How, if at all, has SSA adjusted its process based on evaluation findings?
Under the new federalized system, how is SSA coordinating actions across agency components that are involved with medical CDRs (including the DCR unit, field offices, and other components) and with state DDS agencies, and what, if any, challenges do beneficiaries experience under this new system? For example, what challenges, if any, exist with regard to collection of medical evidence; consultative examinations; medical consultants and psychiatric consultants; and appeals of CDR cessations including requests for in-person services for pre-hearing and Disability Hearing Unit cases? Did SSA adjust its plans or processes for disability examiners at state DDS agencies, including hiring and training, to compensate for lost training and apprenticeship resources at the state agencies?
Do medical CDRs completed by the federal DCR unit differ from those completed by state DDS agencies on key measures (such as decisional outcome, processing time, cases pending, age of cases pending, quality, and accuracy) and costs (including staff time, productivity, consultative examinations, and other factors)? If so, how?
Has the federalization of medical CDRs affected claimants (such as, with regard to DDS initial claims and reconsideration processing times, backlogs, and quality) or state DDS agency capacity (such as examiner staffing and experience levels, hiring, and retention)? If so, how?