"Our new Open Government webpage gives Americans an opportunity to give us their ideas on how we can become a more open and transparent agency," Commissioner Astrue stated. "They will be able to post their ideas on transparency, participation, collaboration, and innovation that should be included in our Open Government Plan. I encourage everyone to visit our webpage and submit their ideas, read and discuss what has been posted, and vote on the ideas that have been submitted."

A link at the top right of the webpage directs viewers to "Share your ideas on our open government plan." After agreeing to the terms of participation, the link leads to a webpage that asks for ideas on how Social Security can: work better with others inside and outside the government; solicit feedback from the public; improve the availability and quality of information; be more innovative and efficient; and create an Open Government Plan.

Social Security's new Open Government webpage also provides easy access to important agency documents such as the Agency Strategic Plan, Freedom of Information Act Report, and program laws and regulations. The agency anticipates publishing its Open Government Plan in April.

"Using health information technology will improve our disability programs and provide better service to the public," Commissioner Astrue said. "We've seen a significant increase in disability applications. To process them, the agency sends more than 15 million requests annually for medical records to healthcare providers. This largely paper-bound workload is generally the most time-consuming part of the disability decision process. The use of health IT will dramatically improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of this process, reducing the cost of making a disability decision for both the medical community and the American taxpayer."

Social Security has been successfully testing health IT to obtain electronic medical records over the past year. Disability applications processed with electronic medical records from test sites in Massachusetts and Virginia have significantly reduced processing times. Some decisions are shortened from weeks or months to just days. More information on Social Security health IT is available at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/hit.

Contracts were awarded to the following organizations:
Cal RHIO, San Francisco, CA - $1,625,000
CareSpark, Kingsport, TN - $1,363,000
Center for Healthy Communities, Wright State University, Healthlink, Dayton, OH - $999,000
Central Virginia Health Network/MedVirginia, Richmond, VA - $1,139,000
Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC), Duluth, MN - $977,000
Douglas County Individual Practice Association, Roseburg, OR - $502,000
EHR Doctors Inc., Pompano Beach, FL - $1,000,000
HealthBridge, Cincinnati, OH - $1,400,000
Lovelace Clinic Foundation (LCF), Albuquerque, NM - $1,083,000
Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI - $998,000
Memorial Hospital Foundation & Memorial Hospital of Gulfport Foundation, Inc., Gulfport, MS - $1,100,000
Oregon Community Health Information Network (OCHIN), Portland, OR - $284,000
Regenstrief Institute, Inc, Indianapolis, IN - $350,000
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Reston, VA - $1,587,000
Southeastern Michigan Health Association, Detroit, MI - $2,988,000

"The addition of these new conditions expands the scope of Compassionate Allowances to a broader subgroup of conditions like early-onset Alzheimer's disease," stated Commissioner Astrue. "The expansion we are announcing today means tens of thousands of Americans with devastating disabilities will now get approved for benefits in a matter of days rather than months and years."

Compassionate Allowances quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that clearly qualify for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability benefits. Allowances help the agency to electronically target and make rapid decisions for the most obviously disabled individuals. In developing the expanded list of conditions, Social Security held public hearings and worked closely with numerous national organizations.

"We will continue to hold hearings and look for other diseases and conditions that can be added to our list of Compassionate Allowances," Commissioner Astrue reported. "There can be no higher priority than getting disability benefits quickly to those Americans with these severe and life-threatening conditions."

Social Security will begin electronically identifying these 38 new conditions March 1.
For more information about the agency's Compassionate Allowances initiative, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.

New Compassionate Allowance Conditions

Alstrom Syndrome
Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
Ataxia Spinocerebellar
Ataxia Telangiectasia
Batten Disease
Bilateral Retinoblastoma
Cri du Chat Syndrome
Degos Disease
Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease
Edwards Syndrome
Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva
Fukuyama Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
Glutaric Acidemia Type II
Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), Familial Type
Hurler Syndrome, Type IH
Hunter Syndrome, Type II
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa, Lethal Type
Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses
Leigh's Disease
Maple Syrup Urine Disease
Merosin Deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
Mixed Dementia
Mucosal Malignant Melanoma
Neonatal Adrenoleukodystrophy
Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses, Infantile Type
Niemann-Pick Type C
Patau Syndrome
Primary Progressive Aphasia
Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy
Sanfilippo Syndrome
Subacute Sclerosis Panencephalitis
Tay Sachs Disease
Thanatophoric Dysplasia, Type 1
Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
Walker Warburg Syndrome
Wolman Disease
Zellweger Syndrome

"I applaud President Obama's commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government and the new datasets we are posting far exceed what was asked of us," Commissioner Astrue said. "Social Security has always valued transparency and sought to give the public user-friendly information about our programs. Each year we send millions of Americans personal information about their Social Security contributions and potential benefits. Our website http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ has a wealth of information about our programs and the Social Security trust funds. I hope the new data we are making available will lead to a better understanding of our operations and the important role we play in people's lives. I look forward to engaging Americans in the business of their government."
Here are a few examples of benefits of the Social Security datasets available today:

Researchers can find out about the work-related experiences of our beneficiaries receiving Social Security disability benefits and give us policy guidance for our disability programs.

The public can see information about hearings workloads and a breakdown of the types of decisions made by Administrative Law Judges.

Researchers can study the effects of current and proposed legislative and program provisions.

People who have requested a hearing on their disability claim can estimate the amount of time they may have to wait for the hearing to be held and for a decision.

"These new datasets are just the beginning of our efforts. In February we will launch our Open Government webpage that will include improved access to our data in a variety of formats. In April we will publish our Open Government plan," said Commissioner Astrue. "Let me also reassure all Americans that while our goal is to become more open and transparent, we will continue to vigilantly protect the personal information the public entrusts to us. We will ensure that transparency does not put that information at risk."

To read the President's Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOPenGovernment

"The changes in the Medicare law that take effect this month will allow hundreds of thousands of Americans who are struggling to pay their prescription drug costs to get extra help during these tough economic times," said Commissioner Astrue. "I am thrilled that Chubby Checker has volunteered to help us spread this important message through a new television, radio, and Internet spot as well as pamphlets and posters."
"Listen up, America! For 50 years, people of all ages and backgrounds have danced the Twist," Chubby Checker said. "Now it's important everyone learn about this new twist in the law. Check it out at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/

To qualify for extra help, individuals must meet certain resource and income limits. The new Medicare law lowers those requirements by eliminating the cash value of life insurance from counting as a resource and eliminating the assistance people receive from others to pay for household expenses, such as food, rent, mortgage or utilities, from counting as income. In addition, the application for extra help may initiate the application process for Medicare Savings Programs, which are state programs to provide help with other Medicare costs (such as Medicare Part B, medical insurance premiums). In certain cases, the Medicare Savings Programs also may pay Medicare Part A (hospital insurance premiums), and Part A and B deductibles and co-payments.

To learn more about the extra help program, access the easy-to-use application, and to view the new TV spot featuring Chubby Checker, go to http://socialsecurity.gov/extrahelp

"Social Security's Retirement Estimator has been a huge success - with the agency providing over four million personalized retirement estimates to Americans since its launch last year," Commissioner Astrue said. "With more people delaying retirement beyond the Medicare eligibility age, it is critical that they also have access to this easy-to-use online tool."

The Retirement Estimator is interactive; it allows users to compare different retirement scenarios. For example, a person can change retirement dates or expected future earnings to assess the impact on their future benefits and determine the best time to retire. The Retirement Estimator presently has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any government online service and, according to the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, it even trumps the ratings of private sector online innovators such as Netflix and Amazon.

Commissioner Astrue also announced the Retirement Estimator will be the first Social Security online service to be made available in Spanish. "Social Security serves a diverse population and we already offer services by phone and in-person in a variety of languages," Commissioner Astrue noted. "Offering the Retirement Estimator in Spanish will be an important step in making our online services even easier for everyone to use."
To learn more about the Retirement Estimator go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator

Social Security provides more than just retirement benefits.
• Retired workers and their dependents account for 69% of total benefits paid.
• Disabled workers and their dependents account for 18% of total benefits paid.
• Almost 3 in 10 of today's 20 year-olds will become disabled before reaching age 67.
• Survivors of deceased workers account for about 13% of total benefits paid.
• About one in seven of today's 20-year-olds will die before reaching age 67.

An estimated 159 million workers, 94% of all workers, are covered under Social Security.
• 52% of the workforce has no private pension coverage.
• 31% of the workforce has no savings set aside specifically for retirement.

In 1935, the life expectancy of a 65-year-old was about 12 years, today it is 18 years.

By 2034, there will be almost twice as many older Americans as today--from 39.9 million today to 74.6 million.

There are currently 3.2 workers for each Social Security beneficiary. By 2034, there will be 2.1 workers for each beneficiary.

"The use of personal health records holds great promise for ensuring that the medical information we collect from someone applying for disability benefits is accurate and complete," Commissioner Astrue said.  "Combined with other advancements in health information technology, our use of HealthVault should result in faster decisions for disability applicants.  I look forward to working closely with Microsoft, a world-wide leader in information technology."

Social Security and Microsoft are developing a technical prototype connecting the two organizations that will be available later this year.  The agency also will collaborate with Microsoft to study current personal health record standards, gaps in those standards, and options for filling those gaps

"This year, through Compassionate Allowances and our Quick Disability Determination process, over 100,000 Americans with severe disabilities will be approved for Social Security disability benefits in a matter of days rather than the months and years it can sometimes take," said Commissioner Astrue.  "We are now looking to add more diseases and impairments to these expedited processes. We are expanding our focus from specific rare diseases and cancers to look at subgroups of much broader conditions.  Early-onset Alzheimer's disease is a rapidly progressive and debilitating disease of the brain that affects individuals between the ages of 50 and 65 and clearly deserves our consideration."

In October 2008, Social Security launched Compassionate Allowances to expedite the processing of disability claims for applicants with medical conditions so severe that their conditions by definition meet Social Security's standards.  Prior to the recent hearing on Alzheimer's Disease, three other Compassionate Allowance hearings were held on rare diseases, cancers, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. The Commissioner will hold the fifth public outreach hearing on schizophrenia in November 2009. To learn more, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances

Chris: Cyndi we hear a lot about social security, but what qualifies a person to receive social security disability benefits?

Cyndi: Well to be disabled for the purposes of the social security administration a person has to be unable to work because of a mental or physical condition that last 12 months. Either it has lasted 12 months or it's expected to last 12 months, or a condition that is considered terminal. For most cases to get disability benefits you have to have worked 5 out of the last 10 years, and then the amount of your benefits will likely be based on the earnings reported to the social security administration.

Chris: So how would somebody file for those benefits?

Cyndi: Well there are 3 ways you can do it. You can actually go to your nearest social security office and just wait and have somebody help you with an application. You may be waiting several hours but some people find that to be the easiest way to do it. You can also call the social security administration and schedule an online interview and they will take your information over the phone. Or you can go to the web www.ssa.gov and fill out an online application there.

Chris: So don't you need a lawyer to help file that?

Cyndi: Well the initial application you can probably do yourself. Most people are denied on their initial application. If you are one of the fortunate few that are not denied then you probably didn't need a lawyer to help you with it. With that said if someone calls us at Crocker Law and they are really struggling with their initial application then we'll help them.

Chris: So what happens if you're denied?

Cyndi: Once you're denied you need to file a request for reconsideration and about 80% of those are denied. So the final step for most people who get benefits is a hearing before an administrative law judge.

Chris: So it sounds like if you're denied you need to get a lawyer.

Cyndi: That would be my recommendation.

Chris: Thank you Cyndi and that's Legally Speaking.