Disability story on CBS

[Guest guest]

Here are the transcripts from the 2-part CBS story that aired this week -

posted on Co-Cure.

Shari Ferbert

***********************************************************************

CBS aired a good story on disability January 14 and 15. Those who have had

problems getting Social Security Disability can take an assumed name and

comment in the blog section. I think they need to hear from us. Thanks to

LocalME for pointing this out. -- Schweitzer

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/14/cbsnews_investigates/main3712627.s

html

Disabled And Waiting

CBS News Investigation: Backlog In Disability Benefits System Leaves

Thousands Of Vulnerable Americans Stranded

ATLANTA, Jan. 14, 2008

(CBS) This is the first part of a CBS News investigation into Social

Security disability benefits.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

Each year, millions of people who are disabled from an accident or disease

turn to the federal government for Social Security disability payments - a

benefit that every worker who is declared disabled is eligible to receive.

It's a 51-year-old government insurance program - a lifeline of sorts - that

every worker pays for through that line-item on their pay stub, known as

FICA.

But a two-month CBS News investigation reveals that safety net may not be

there when you need it most.

" I always figured that I'd die in a fiery car wreck or something, never that

I'd be disabled, " 33-year-old told CBS News chief investigative

correspondent Armen Keteyian.

Two years ago, a failed surgery left with a fracture in his spinal

cord. It turned his life upside down, leaving him unable to work in his job

as a broadcast engineer.

" Everybody says, 'You gotta have a positive attitude,' " said. " You

know, and I say, 'Well, I am positive. I'm positive this is the end,' you

know. I mean it's not going to get better. "

Declared disabled by the state of land, was told he was " shoo-in "

when he applied for federal disability last year, only to be turned down

three months later on the grounds, according to federal guidelines, he

wasn't disabled enough. appealed, and was denied again.

He's one of 27,000 land residents - 68 percent of all those who applied

- to suffer such a fate.

Overall, two out of every three people who apply for federal disability

benefits are rejected by a government agency that critics say is out of

date, underfunded, and incapable of serving the exploding number of disabled

Americans. Waiting times for a hearing in some cities are more than three

years.

Fullerton, an advocate for the disabled, told Keteyian: " I have people

all the time writing to me, saying they are suicidal. "

Fullerton's online support site is home to one horror story after another.

Reading from emails, she said: " Had to file bankruptcy to keep home. Losing

home with four children. "

A two-month CBS News investigation has found that over the last two years,

at least 16,000 people fighting for disability benefits died while awaiting

a decision.

Overall, the backlog of cases now stands at 750,000 - up 150 percent since

2000.

People wait an average of 520 days for a hearing on their claims.

People like Jerry Rice, who calls an abandoned tool shed home. When we found

Rice, who suffers from mental illness, he'd been waiting for three years for

his day in court.

" So. Jerry, this is how it ends up for you? " Keteyian asked.

" This is how it is, " Rice replied. " I hope it's not how it ends up. "

But he believes he deserves the disability?

" I'm not asking them to give me welfare, " Rice said. " I'm just asking them

to give me what they promised. Yeah, I deserve it. "

" It's a mess from the time you apply - till the time you get a hearing, "

said attorney Hogan, who has represented thousands of folks in Atlanta,

the backlog capital of the nation.

" We're the furthest behind of any area of the country, it could take 2.5

years to get your hearing, " Hogan said.

That's because there are some 24,000 cases waiting to be heard. And only

about 15 local judges to handle them.

" We have a lot of room for improvement, " said Social Security Commissioner

Astrue, who took over the federal disability program last year. He

stepped up efforts to fix the system many call broken.

" So I think it's been broken the way a leg is broken, " he said. " And it can

heal. And it is healing. "

Keteyian asked: " But what do you say to the people who have stood in that

line, that three-year line? "

" I don't have a defense. I don't think it's a good thing. It don't think it

should have been allowed to happen, " Astrue said. " We're probably not gonna

be able to drive back the backlog down at the arte that it went up. But

we're sure as hell gonna try. "

That's little consolation to the likes of , who has had to rely

on his parents to simply survive.

" You pay into a system that you think is gonna help you in your time of

need, and it doesn't even acknowledge that you even have a problem, "

said.

C MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. .

================================

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/15/cbsnews_investigates/main3718129.s

html

" Failing The Disabled "

Investigation: Disability Benefits System Harbors Culture Of Denying Help To

Even The Most Unfit To Work

Comments 146

ATLANTA, Jan. 15, 2008

(CBS) This is the second part in a CBS News investigative series about

federal disability program.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

Two years ago, 52-year-old Sherry Farner was a manager at a Denny's

restaurant. But heart problems, strokes, and kidney failure put an end to

her employment.

" I can't be alone, because I fall a lot. This is the hardest thing I've ever

been through, " Farner told CBS News chief investigative reporter Armen

Keteyian. " And I wouldn't wish this on nobody. "

When Farner filed a claim against a lifetime of paying into federal Social

Security disability, she was turned down -- twice. Even though a rejection

letter acknowledged she was severely disabled. But not disabled enough:

Unable to perform work of any kind.

" It's a very tough standard, " said Astrue, commissioner of the

Social Security Administration. " And you can argue whether that should be

the standard or not, but I'm stuck with that. "

A two-month CBS News Investigation uncovered a system whose own standards

have been called into question - a federal agency reeling from budget cuts

and high staff turnover. Doctors making decisions outside their specialties,

and inexperienced examiners under pressure to keep costs down.

" We're failing the disabled on a very large scale, " said Trisha Cardillo,

who worked inside the system for years, reviewing 200 federal disability

cases a month in Ohio.

She now fights for those seeking disability benefits.

" There were a lot of times when I was fighting with management because I

wanted to approve a claim, " Cardillo said. " And I had to go through so many

steps and - jump through so many hurdles to do that, it just seemed

ridiculous, "

All part, says Cardillo, of a culture built on denial. Examiners warned by

their superiors that approving claims today could cost the government

millions tomorrow.

" So are you saying, in essence, there was a quota system? " Keteyian asked.

" Every state had different numbers, " she said. " They know that a certain

percentage of people, once denied, will never file an appeal. "

CBS News has learned that two-thirds of all applicants denied last year -

nearly a million people - simply gave up after being turned down the first

time.

Given how many claims are ultimately approved, that could mean hundreds of

thousands of Americans are not getting the benefits they paid for - and

deserve.

Keteyian asked Astrue: " One of the state examiners we spoke to, told us that

people were singled out, talked to, if they approved too many clients. "

" You can approve too many, and you can approve too few. And they're both

wrong, " Astrue said.

That's not what the examiner told CBS News. She said that in her state there

were quotas to be kept at a certain level.

" It's not the way the system works, " Astrue said.

Keteyian said: " That's the way it worked in her office. "

" You can always find a disgruntled person, " Astrue said.

But we found nearly three dozen former examiners from 14 states who told us

about a system-wide " culture to deny. "

Part of the reason for that, says Jim Allsup, who employs former SSA

employees at his Illinois-based company Allsup Inc., is that there is " an

inherent conflict-of-interest between protecting the disability trust fund

and providing the appropriate level of service to the claimant. "

That's something CBS News found in a review of 50 cases across the country,

where patients diagnosed with strokes, heart attacks, even brain cancer,

were rejected for disability payments.

" Nobody cares if a case is denied. If you approve it, it will be subjected

to intense scrutiny, " Cardillo said.

No surprise to Sherry Farner, whose case was finally approved by a judge a

few weeks ago - after a two-year wait. But not before losing her car, her

life savings, and nearly her home.

C MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. .