Disability claims speeded up

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Disability claims speeded up

Utah 13th-best among the states, but benefits wait can be months

By Kirsten

The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_6522965

Utah has gotten speedier at processing Social Security disability

claims, at least when compared with other states.

With 2,903 backlogged claims in 2006 - 9 percent of all 32,274

beneficiaries - Utah ranks 13th-best in a state-by-state comparison

done by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).

Data on Idaho and Wyoming aren't available. Utah outperformed

Colorado, but fared worse than Nevada and Arizona. Kansas had the

worst backlog.

But whether Utah's favorable ranking is the by-product of reforms is

unclear. It could be other states have just gotten worse.

Social Security disability " is in crisis, " said AAPD President

J. Imparato, calling for an investment in taxpayer dollars to

shore up an overworked and underfunded system.

The Social Security Administration has fought the perception that it

was designed to be hard to navigate so as to avoid paying claims. It

pays disability benefits to people who cannot work because they have

a medical condition that is expected to last at least one year or to

result in death.

Still, more than 1.4 million Americans are currently mired in the

disability maze. On average, applicants wait 18 months before a

check hits the mail. Meanwhile, some lose their homes or fall into

bankruptcy.

In Utah, the wait is longer than elsewhere. In 2007, claims took an

average of 118 days just to clear the state's Disability

Determination Services division, which partners with the Social

Security Administration. That's down from 129 days in 2005.

But it compares to 85 days nationally.

And in the six-state Denver region, Utah has among the lowest

approval rates for first-time applicants, at 35 percent in 2005.

The state's sub-par performance prodded legislators to order an

audit last winter. Investigators recommended that Utah collect more

of its medical evidence electronically. Division chief Don Uchida

said, " We're now totally electronic. " But he said fewer than half of

all medical practitioners have digitized their medical records, " so

we have to scan them. "

Utah lawmakers also gave claims workers a pay raise this year,

reducing employee turnover by two-thirds, said Uchida. " An examiner

working today is earning 20 percent more than this same time last

year. But we're still below what the feds pay. "

The threat of cuts to Medicaid, however, are a lingering worry for

Uchida and advocates nationally. The Social Security Administration

is shrinking. From August 2005 to January 2007, about 2,000 field

office employees left the administration without being replaced,

according to the AAPD.

Meanwhile, the number of disabled workers drawing benefits has more

than doubled since 1990, from 3 million to 6.8 million, driven by

aging baby boomers.