Appendix 3 - Description of Key Initiatives
Table of Contents

Automated Time and Attendance System

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to provide an employee-oriented Time and Attendance System which will provide automated sign-in/sign-out capability, automated leave slip submission and approval, and a management information tool which SSA managers consider an essential step in enabling them to deal with the shortage of administrative support. It will provide the services necessary to acquire, edit, process and transmit time and attendance information. It will provide a platform to support management information requirements for time and attendance data.

Implementation will be rolled out through the year 2002.

Combating Fraud

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management; Inspector General

While SSA has a strong program to combat fraud, waste and abuse, we have identified several areas where more work is needed. While not an exhaustive list of the efforts SSA is making to combat fraud and recover overpayments, the following are the major areas of emphasis:

Fraud Prevention and Detection:

• Implementing Border Office initiatives in an effort to verify U.S. residency for SSI recipients on both borders with addresses near borders.

• Revising the integrity review process by continuing the development of a Comprehensive Integrity Review Program (CIRP) to identify fraud prone situations and better focus security audits.

• Installing two-tiered personal identification number (PIN) control for certain automated transactions sensitive to fraud.

• Increasing efforts to publicize the Agency's initiatives to combat fraud and enhance public perception that SSA programs are well-managed.

• Updating internal procedures to reflect the current policy for addressing fraud related issues.

• Conducting international validation surveys.

Referrals and Investigations:

• Establishing Electronic Crimes Teams to increase investigative and forensic capabilities allowing the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to successfully engage criminal activity in an automated or electronic environment.

• Conducting cooperative pilots using Federal, State and local resources to investigate fraud.

Enforcement:

• Implementing legislation to impose administrative sanctions in the form of periods of ineligibility on individuals who furnish inaccurate information in connection with a claim for benefits.

• Expanding Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) authorities regarding the misuse of Social Security numbers and exclusion of beneficiaries.

• Enhancing the monitoring of restitution activity related to cases referred to the Inspector General resulting in court-ordered restitution, and restitution activity resulting from civil referrals.

• Expanding Treasury Offset Program (TOP) to all delinquent debt.

• Implementing new collection tools made available by Congress, that is, cross-program recoveries, administrative wage garnishment, Federal salary offset, interest changing and the use of private collection agencies. (SSA has already implemented credit bureau reporting and administrative offsets).

• Implementing streamlined remittance processing.

• Completing the Title II and Title XVI debt management modernization.

• Establishing Office of General Counsel (OGC) pilot to increase prosecution of fraud cases referred to the United States Attorney's Office by SSA's OIG.

Management Information and Control:
Designing appropriate data bases to track and monitor fraud referrals and administrative actions.

Competency-Based Human Resources Tools

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

To meet the needs of SSA's diverse customers as well as the changing environment as we enter the 21st century, SSA must clearly identify the skills needed by the future SSA workforce. Competency-based human resources tools will enable SSA to analyze employee performance in the job, determine what competencies are needed for employees to perform well, and identify training needs and hiring criteria.

Continuing Disability Review Process Enhancements

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

Congress has provided authority for an increase in discretionary spending caps for FYs 1996-2002 to fund the cost of processing CDRs. In the fourth year of the revised 7-year plan SSA has made considerable progress in conducting CDRs of disability cases. The plan is designed to allow SSA to become current on Title II CDRs by the end of FY 2000 and on Title XVI CDRs by the end of FY 2002. The plan has allowed SSA to streamline the CDR process, and includes the following major areas of emphasis.

• Use of the profiling and mailing process enables SSA to conduct many additional reviews based on the beneficiaries responses. If, however, the beneficiary's responses to the mailer, when viewed in conjunction with other medical and historical data, indicate a possibility of medical improvement, a full medical review is initiated. SSA is implementing various innovations to improve the accuracy of the profiling to increase its ability to identify the factors that indicate medical improvement.

• Improvement of CDR case flow, management information and workload control systems to ensure operational components can adequately manage the heavy workloads. Other operational improvements include updating procedural instructions for SSA field office and DDS.

Create Strategy to Instill Values

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to promote an Agency culture that successfully incorporates its values. Our shared practices and group values create our culture. This initiative will build a culture that will support SSA's values, which are:

• To treat every individual with equal regard and respect.

• To act with integrity.

• To imbue quality in all we do and help others do the same.

• To remember that courtesy and compassion mean everything.

• To listen carefully and to act on what we hear.

• To respect stability and embrace change, keeping what works and changing what could work better.

• To value diversity.

• To discharge faithfully our role as guardians of the public trust.

• To act with this thought in mind: to millions of people, we are "the government."

SSA is performing a baseline study, gap analysis, and benchmarking study, leading to the creation of a change strategy. We will design and begin implementation of the change strategy in FY 2000. As a result of our renewed culture, all employees will exhibit SSA's values when they provide direct service to our customers.

Diverse Workforce/Transition Plan

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

This Key Initiative has four major purposes:

• To create a SSA workforce of diverse employees.

• To hire and retain employees who are well qualified and satisfied.

• To provide employees with proper tools, training, environment and leadership.

• To ensure that employees provide world-class service to SSA customers now and in the future.

The SSA Future Workforce Transition Plan will:

• Help us acquire the workforce we need for the future, through recruitment of new employees and training of current employees.

• Help employees achieve satisfaction with work, family and career goals.

SSA is collecting baseline information on employee and Agency needs, both now and into the future. Gaps will be analyzed and actions planned. Strategies for hiring, training, and retaining employees will be developed and implemented.

SSA has already:

• Developed a strategy for hiring underrepresented groups.

• Convened a management/union partnership workgroup to develop recommendations on family/friendly workplace issues, which are being implemented.

• Issued a report on the needs of our employees with disabilities. Convened an ongoing team to enhance services to these employees.

• Issued a Retirement Wave study report.

• Issued a management/union partnership report that identifies barriers to our "One Agency Concept&qout; and proposes solutions.

Earnings Improvement Program

Lead SSA Officials: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management and Deputy Commissioner for Operations

SSA has developed a comprehensive 5-year plan for further improvement of the earnings process systems. The plan includes all the following major activities:

Reduce Earnings Suspense File (ESF): The purpose of this initiative is to reduce both the rate of growth of the ESF and the size of the existing file. Accretion prevention measures will focus on improved SSA and employer awareness and accountability, outreach to problem industries, States and employers, strengthened SSA validation capabilities, better use of verification services and improved policy and enforcement activities. To reduce the size of the existing file, SSA will analyze the composition of the ESF to identify problems and select strategic opportunity areas, and develop an implementation strategy and schedule focused on identified opportunities.

Earnings Process Improvements: SSA has formulated plans to improve the manner in which earnings are established, corrected and adjusted, provide a more convenient way for wage data to be accessed by both employers and employees, and improve coordination among the various SSA data files--over 60--that contain related information about employers, employees and the wages associated with each. Additionally, the plans provide the infrastructure support to prepare SSA's earnings systems to accommodate more electronic business, especially to use the SSA's Internet as a primary method of conducting earnings business with all our customers.

There are currently six different programs that provide earnings history and benefit estimates to SSA customers. These programs evolved at different times in the past, for different purposes, and they do not produce consistently uniform results. In addition, SSA is concerned that today's Social Security Statement process (formerly known as Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES)) limits customer options. Currently, the Social Security Statement provides age 62 and full retirement age benefit estimates. Individuals often want to have several estimates between age 62 and full retirement age when deciding to make a retirement decision. To address these problems, SSA will develop a single algorithm/computer routine to provide program benefit estimates and will provide options for customers to request benefit estimates using variable assumptions about earnings and other factors relevant to the computation.

Earnings Management Information: SSA will provide integrated, reliable management information (MI) to decision makers who are responsible for improving earnings accuracy and timeliness and for ensuring customer focused support and services. SSA's strategy is to develop a universal Earnings Data Warehouse. Detailed earnings transaction data will be housed in flexible relational database management systems. Customers will be given tools for easy access to the data from their workstations.

Electronic Disability System (eDIB)

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Systems

From the knowledge gained in testing disability process redesign concepts, SSA has updated its strategy for achieving improvements in the administration of the disability program. In March 1999, the Agency set forth the next steps in disability process redesign, as well as new and expanded program initiatives.

One such initiative is to replace the Reengineered Disability System (RDS) project with the Electronic Disability System (eDIB). The eDIB project builds on lessons learned from the RDS and an independent consultant assessment of the RDS pilot. The objective of eDIB is to develop a fully electronic process that supports the planned improvements to the disability program. The electronic process accomplishes the following:

• Improve the availability of disability information across processing components by eliminating reliance on paper folders.

• Reduce the cost of mailing, handling, and storing paper folders. Reduce time spent rearranging and photocopying paper files.

• Leverage the investment in distributed DDS systems by creating interface with the electronic folder.

• Improve the disability interview process by providing automated interview screens as well as a method to electronically capture accurate application data provided by clients.

• Enhance processing of disability claims in the hearing office.

• Provide a method for exchanging medical records with the health care industry.

• Define electronic folder standards.

The eDIB is essential to removing the paper folder from the disability claims process. As the new system is being developed, we will study the effects of a paperless process upon adjudication methods. We will also study and apply changes to the process incrementally:

1. Conduct a proof-of-concept--This demonstrated how key information collected through the disability interview process will be stored in an electronic folder. An existing DDS system accessed the electronic folder and imported some information to begin the adjudication of the claim. The initial activity began in July 1999 in a laboratory environment. A second version was implemented in December 1999 which incorporated some of the results of the initial test. Plans are under way to move to the next step and make eDIB ready for processing live cases.

2. Migrate to electronic processing--Continuous improvement of eDIB will result in a product that can be used in live production sites. The first implementation is planned for the Delaware DDS and field offices during the third quarter of FY 2000. This step will help identify the standard requirements for the eDIB electronic folder.

3. Develop eDIB folder standards--As eDIB is built, SSA will conduct early pilots to test the new electronic process and identify those pieces of information that are necessary for processing a disability claim. Supporting information will be included as images of the original documents. To process the information, SSA will establish hardware and software infrastructure for eDIB. This activity will result in electronic folder standards that will be used by DDS software vendors to interface eDIB with individual State systems. The standards will be ready in early FY 2001 and it is possible that some DDS pilots of eDIB could begin later in the year.

4. Interface distributed systems with eDIB--As the DDS systems are interfaced with eDIB, other SSA components will need to interface with eDIB. As the requirements are identified, the necessary links will be built. Ultimately, every component involved in the disability program will share information with eDIB. Since the hardware necessary to support eDIB will be identified and tested during FY 2001, the rollout of eDIB may need to be planned as part of a future IWS/LAN replacement.

Electronic processing is essential to SSA's overall approach to meeting the challenges of improving the Agency's disability system capability. The following shows the high level timeframes for achieving the eDIB objectives:

Electronic Payment Services

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

This Key Initiative has three major purposes:

• To implement the provisions of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, which require all Federal payments to be delivered by means of electronic funds transfer;

• To improve public service and administrative efficiency by expanding SSA's use of the Automated Clearing House system to facilitate the exchange of program-related information; and

• To modernize the payment disbursement process to take maximum advantage of an all-electronic payment environment.

Electronic Funds Transfer 99 (EFT99): The EFT99 provision of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 requires all Federal payments, with the exception of tax refunds, to be made electronically by January 2, 1999. Implementation of EFT99 is complete and provides Federal payment recipients a range of payment choices including traditional direct deposit accounts, low-cost electronic transfer accounts, electronic benefits transfer, and self-determined waivers for recipients for whom compliance with EFT99 would be a hardship. SSA will continue to work closely with the Treasury Department to encourage the use of EFT among the remaining 13 million check recipients who are receiving Social Security and SSI checks. In addition, SSA is working to make Treasury's electronic transfer account web site available in SSA field offices to better serve recipients who inquire about their payment options.

Use of the National Automated Clearinghouse (ACH): As the number of beneficiaries being paid electronically increases, SSA and the financial community become more dependent upon each other for the exchange of both payments and payment-related information. The natural pathway for this exchange is the ACH system, which is maintained mostly by the Federal Reserve.

SSA has taken the lead within the Federal community in using the ACH to improve communications with the Nation's financial institutions and, thereby, achieve improved service and efficiency. Examples of achievement include notifying banks immediately via the ACH when a recipient with direct deposit dies (to eliminate overpayments) and electronic notice to SSA from the bank when a beneficiary enrolls for direct deposit. SSA has improved EFT services for representative payees by providing additional identifying information with the payment record. SSA is investigating the feasibility of using the ACH to replace the current manual processes we use to verify bank balances for SSI applicants and to enable banks to notify SSA when a direct deposit customer changes his/her residence address.

Modernize the Disbursement Process

This initiative will change the way the 3rd of the month Social Security payment file is delivered to Treasury. Currently, changes to the 3rd of the month master file are sent to Treasury throughout the month. With this initiative, the entire payment file is sent each month for processing. This will permit SSA to hold the payment files as long as possible, allowing the maximum amount of time to act on late reports of death or other post-entitlement events affecting the next scheduled payment.

Electronic Records Management

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to make certain that SSA takes the steps necessary to implement an electronic record-keeping system to appropriately manage all of its administrative electronic records. These records include word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets and E-mail. In the past, there was a lot of flexibility with the management of electronic records. Under General Records Schedule (GRS)-20, a guideline provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Federal agencies were allowed to destroy electronic records once a hard copy had been produced. In 1996, an advocacy group challenged NARA's authority to allow destruction of electronic records under GRS-20 and the issue was taken to Court (Citizens versus Carlin). Initially, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled GRS-20 to be "null and void" and NARA was directed to provide agencies with guidelines on managing electronic records. In a subsequent appeal, however, this ruling was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals (August 06, 1999). What this recent reversal means to mandatory electronic records management is unclear at this time. However, regardless of the outcome of the above Court battle, the correct business trend is towards the prudent management of all electronic records. NARA is now advising agencies to direct their resources towards planning for the implementation of an electronic record keeping system. Also, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), which takes effect in FY 2004, continues to provide a strong impetus for all Federal agencies to develop and maintain the capability to manage records electronically for their full legal retention period. Under GPEA (Public Law 105-277), by October 2003, agencies must give persons and entities that are required to maintain, submit or disclose information to the Federal Government, the option of doing so electronically when practicable as a substitute for paper. Accordingly, SSA must continue with this important Key Initiative, in the most cost-effective manner possible, as detailed below.

Electronic Service Delivery

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

The purpose of the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) initiative is to further expand customer options for convenient, cost-effective, secure, and user-friendly electronic services. Major activities fall into two key areas: Internet Customer Services and Field Office Customer Assistance.

Internet Customer Services: SSA has a World Wide Web Home Page on the Internet that has been the recipient of numerous awards for its clarity, rich content, and usefulness to the public. We project that SSA will serve 15.8 million Internet customers in 2000. Our FY 2001 goal is to serve 23 million customers. With the growth of online direct services as a "best" business practice, customers expect SSA--like other world-class service providers--to offer an ever-increasing range of services via the Net.

One of the barriers to expanded Internet services is the need for reliable ways to authenticate electronic customers. We are examining a broad range of possible authentication solutions including digital certificates and Pin/Password technology. SSA will employ appropriate levels of authentication for all electronic services and applications introduced on the Internet.

Two other important concerns are being addressed. At times, in order to complete their electronic transactions, customers must be able to get assistance (i.e., online Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), a video clip showing what to do, an automatic link to SSA's 800 number, etc.). SSA has established a "lab" for assessing customers support technologies. In addition, SSA will be soliciting input from customers and stakeholders concerning implementation of Internet suites of services and customer support.

Field Office Customer Assistance: SSA has implemented a small proof-of-concept to test user-friendly kiosks in selected SSA field offices for evaluation of customer acceptance as well as costs and benefits. SSA customers who visit field offices may complete certain forms necessary for the service to be finalized on a face-to-face basis. Integration of customer-completed electronic forms into field office work flows and customer satisfaction will also be evaluated as part of this study.

Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

This Key Initiative is a comprehensive program to ensure a substantial increase in the number of beneficiaries who return to work and achieve self-sufficiency. It includes all the following activities:

The Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program: In FY 2001, SSA will begin to implement the Ticket provisions mandated by Public Law (P.L.) 106-170, the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. Under this new law, a disabled beneficiary would be issued a Ticket that he or she may assign to an approved provider of services--called an Employment Network (EN)--and receive vocational rehabilitation and employment services. If the beneficiary returns to work and stops receiving disability benefits due to earnings, the EN will be paid under a performance-based system, either an outcome payment or an outcome milestone payment.

We will begin to implement The Ticket Program in some States in January 2001. The program will be phased in over a 3-year period. The Program Manager will be operating and Employment Networks will be under contract to SSA in these states. Tickets will be issued to some beneficiaries. New work incentive provisions will be available nationwide including extended Medicare coverage for persons who work, expedited reinstatement to benefits for persons who must stop working because of their medical condition and suspension of continuing disability reviews for persons using a ticket.

Under other provisions of this legislation, SSA will establish a national grants program that will provide beneficiaries with benefits planning assistance and protection and advocacy services to support their efforts to gain employment.

Expanded Health Insurance for People with Disabilities Who Are Working: SSA is collaborating with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to encourage States to extend Medicaid coverage to working disabled beneficiaries in accordance with provisions of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Several States have plans in place, and our objective is to educate consumers and State officials about the importance of assuring the availability of health insurance to beneficiaries who are working or want to work.

SSA is also working with HCFA on the implementation of the health insurance provision of P.L. 106-170, to provide extended Medicare coverage for SSDI beneficiaries who have gone to work, and expanded State options to provide Medicaid for workers with disabilities.

SSA, HCFA, and other Federal agencies are holding public education forums across the country on methods to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. These events are also publicizing innovative health care options. SSA has also conducted joint outreach activities with HCFA to increase public awareness of the Qualified Disabled and Working Individual (QDWI) buy-in program for Part A Medicare.

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Program Enhancements: SSA is currently using contractor and interagency agreement resources to assist with improving the rehabilitation and employment opportunities available to beneficiaries with disabilities. The objective is to make VR services more readily available to both SSA-referred and self-referred individuals while improving the administration and cost-effectiveness of the VR program.

During FY 2000, SSA will begin the transition from the current VR Reimbursement Program to the Ticket to Work Program. State VR agencies will retain the option under P.L. 106-170 of continuing to receive payments for the cost of VR services under the current reimbursement program or to receive the same performance-based payments as non-State Employment Networks will be eligible to receive. SSA will begin phasing out the use of alternative participants and move toward the use of employment networks to provide services to beneficiaries who assign their tickets to such networks.

Employment Strategy Research: SSA has begun testing new ways to increase opportunities for beneficiaries with disabilities to receive the information and services they need to work. SSA has begun and will continue to fund projects that will broaden understanding of SSA's work incentives as well as projects that deliver direct services to beneficiaries and applicants.

• State Partnership Initiative (SPI)

The SPI initiative is designed to help States develop innovative and integrated, state-wide programs of service and supports for their residents with disabilities in order to increase job opportunities and decrease dependence on public benefits, including Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income.

In 1998, SSA awarded cooperative agreements to 12 States under the State Partnership Initiative (SPI) to develop innovative projects to assist adults with disabilities to reenter the work force. The States are: California, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The cooperative agreements include funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor. We expect to fund this program for five years. In 1998, SSA has awarded a contract to Virginia Commonwealth University to provide technical assistance to the States and to monitor and collect data on the State projects.

• New Demonstrations

In FY 2000 and 2001, SSA will develop new demonstrations as called for in Public Law 106-170. Areas of interest include early return-to-work intervention and employer incentives.

Policy Development and Education: On July 1, 1999, SSA increased the monthly earnings guidelines that are used in determining whether the work activities of a person with impairments other than blindness demonstrate that he or she is able to perform substantial gainful activity (SGA). Under the new rule, the $500 amount rises to $700 per month. The new rule also applied to self-employed workers in certain circumstances.

SSA is considering additional changes to our rules regarding work, including increases to the SGA amount, changes to the student earned income exclusion limits, and increases to the trial work period services amount. We expect that these changes will provide real incentives for beneficiaries to attempt to work and greater financial value for working beneficiaries to keep working or increase their work effort.

SSA is developing new public information materials to improve awareness and understanding of our work incentives. We are also reviewing existing publications, including the popular "Red Book" and "Graduating to Independence" and will revise them in FY 2000 and 2001.

Service Delivery: SSA is designing a new service delivery model to address the needs of beneficiaries who want to work. This initiative seeks to improve customer service in this area by dedicating specially trained field personnel to focus on working beneficiaries; by training SSA staff and our partners in the disability community on Social Security's employment and support provisions; by increasing electronic services and by providing employees and the public with better information about Social Security programs that encourage work.

SSA has created a new Employment Support Representative (ESR) position to provide front-line service to beneficiaries and others in the disability community. The ESR position will be tested in 32 locations across the country in FY 2000 and evaluated in FY 2001.

Youth Transition and Continuing Disability Reviews: This initiative explores a unique continuing disability review (CDR) process for youth aged 16-25 that will assist SSA in evaluating the work potential of this age group. Assessments will be made of the young persons' capabilities, e.g., language skills, physical capabilities and emotional strengths, to determine the type of education, training, special equipment, or other accommodations the young people with disabilities will need to prepare them for the transition from school to work. Provision for necessary equipment/services will actually be arranged for a sub-sample of this group.

Enhance the Environmental Health and Physical Security in the Workplace

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

In recent years, SSA has implemented many measures to enhance the environmental health and physical security of the workplace. The following are some of the most significant:

• A Union/Management Health and Safety Partnership Committee to provide oversight was established.

• SSA has completed a security evaluation of all field facilities.

• SSA has hosted Security Conferences each year from 1996 to 1999 for staff from all Headquarters and field components to heighten awareness and to provide a forum for employee input.

• A program of air quality testing has been implemented. The goal is to evaluate twenty percent of all SSA offices each year, with 75 percent of all required corrective actions identified in the comprehensive surveys being completed. In FY 1999, we exceeded our evaluation goal and completed surveys in 37 percent of SSA's field offices.

• A program of water sampling has been implemented. By the end of FY 2001, all SSA field offices will be evaluated and 100 percent of identified problems will be corrected. Over 660 field offices received water sampling in FY 1999.

• Environmental Health and Safety Comprehensive Assessments have been implemented. Assessments will be conducted in 10 percent of SSA facilities nationwide by the end of FY 2000.

• CPR training and supplies were provided for employee volunteers at SSA facilities nationwide.

• An employee survey is conducted biennially to assess employee satisfaction with the security of their offices. The results of the 1998 survey were available in FY 1999 and showed that 74 percent of the employees expressed satisfaction with the physical security of their offices, measured against our goal of 70 percent.

SSA is committed to continue these programs and correct problems as they are identified. The following are the most important activities planned for 2000-2001.

Expand Electronic SSN Verification Services

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

This is an initiative to provide employers with expanded name/SSN verification services. The most significant goal is to provide employers an electronic service for verification of SSNs. Employer validation services will be provided on-line (ten at a time) with an immediate response as well as in batches (overnight response) for larger files. This initiative also includes planned SSA efforts to promote a general increase in the use of electronic SSN verification services.

It includes communications and marketing, particularly to employers who have significant numbers of wage items going into the Earnings Suspense File--that is, wage items which cannot be matched to any valid SSN. The implementation of this system will result in fewer wage items with invalid name/SSN combinations, thus reducing the Agency's Earnings Suspense File's rate of growth.

Expand Electronic Wage Reporting

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

A market analysis conducted by Lockheed Martin Corporation for SSA in 1996 indicates that, if SSA establishes and publicizes an infrastructure to accept electronic wage reports, it can expect electronic wage reports to be more than 22.7 percent of all submissions by the year 2005. This study is currently being updated. In the near term, a bulletin board facility is expected to be the single most popular electronic alternative. In the future (3 to 5 years), the Internet is expected to be the most popular alternative for annual wage reporting submissions. Electronic wage reporting capability will not only provide the business community additional easy-to-use and cost-effective ways to file wage reports but also lower SSA's processing costs, capture data more quickly and transmit information to the Internal Revenue Service within shorter time frames.

SSA has already completed proof-of-concept testing of wage reporting and has demonstrated that such reporting can be implemented securely and cost-effectively. SSA will not, however, be able to support this level of demand in a cost-effective manner with our current systems. Responding to this challenge, SSA plans to:

Expand Voluntary Electronic Reporting: SSA will provide more and better access methods and support services for electronic filers. These will include:

• Capability for employers to report via the Internet and dedicated lines

• Capability for employers to file reports via value-added networks

• A variety of responsive and convenient help desk services

• Facility for employers to download shareware and other wage reporting software

Financial/Administrative Systems

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to modernize SSA's financial/administrative processes and systems. It includes three sub-initiatives: Managerial Cost Accountability, Electronic Payments and replacing the Agency's Accounting System.

The Managerial Cost Accountability Process (MCAP) and System (MCAS) will modernize the way SSA collects, organizes and provides management and financial information for SSA's programs and operations to SSA managers, analysts and outside entities which oversee SSA. MCAS fulfills a commitment to Congress to develop and implement this process and system, and is essential to meeting the government-wide requirements of the Federal Financial Accounting Standard (SFFAS) #4, Managerial Cost Accounting Standards. MCAP/MCAS will provide essential data to track our Strategic Goals and Objectives and determine the resources which each consumes. They will provide detailed managerial cost accountability for all SSA workloads and programs at all organizational levels, will facilitate the identification of best practices, and will help improve productivity.

The Electronic Payments (EP) sub-initiative will allow SSA to convert the significant number of Treasury checks and third party drafts issued for administrative payments to electronic funds transfer (EFT) and create a paperless business process for administrative payments and related customer service. This conversion is necessary to implement the stringent vendor payment requirements of the electronic payment provisions in the Debt Collection and Improvement Act of 1996. In addition, EP will result in significant Agency savings from the reduction in payments and better overall management of SSA funds by intergrating the administrative payment processes with SSA's central accounting system.

SSA will be replacing the Financial Accounting System (FACTS) within the next 3 years. This sub-initiative will provide a comprehensive financial accounting system replacing accounts payable, accounts receivable, and core accounting systems currently included in the FACTS. Replacing FACTS is mandatory since many new regulatory and federal financial accounting standards, including SFFAS #4 (above) and OMB Circular A-127; Financial Management Systems must be implemented. Incorporation of these requirements is necessary for SSA to continue to receive an unqualified opinion on our annual financial statements. Overall, this sub-initiative will provide for better control of Agency funds and provide data consistency across the Agency.

Hearings Process Improvements (HPI)

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

This Key Initiative will improve service to hearings customers by reducing individual case processing times, improving quality and productivity, promoting individualized case management and increasing employee job satisfaction. With full implementation, HPI is expected to result in a 21 percent decrease in processing time and a 16 percent increase in Productivity Per Workyear (PPWY) over the current process. The KI directly supports SSA's World Class Service goal, and specifically, the Hearings Processing Time Program for Objective Achievement (POA). The HPI Key Initiative will incorporate a number of new and existing initiatives and concepts:

• Process Improvements
  • Implementation of national workflow model

  • Processing time benchmarks

  • Standardize pre-hearing conferences

• Group-based accountability
  • Establishment of processing groups

• Automation and Data collection efficiencies
  • Improved management information

  • Case management software

  • Automated calendars

Immediate Claims-Taking Services

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Operations

In support of our world-class service goal, SSA has made a commitment that, by the year 2000, we will take retirement and survivors claims immediately over the phone, if the claimant has all the information we need available at the time of the call. Since SSA already has processes in place to take claims from customers who visit a field office, this initiative focuses on providing the same immediate service for customers who telephone SSA and have all the information needed to file a retirement or survivor claim.

This is a significant departure from SSA's current telephone service practice--which is, to schedule an appointment with a field office (rather than take the claim) when the customer first contacts us and expresses interest in filing for benefits. In addition, it is a significant departure from the traditional 800-number policy of handling only those transactions that can be completed within a few minutes. The major thrust of this Key Initiative is to develop and test potential strategies for immediate teleclaims services that could be implemented without jeopardizing the world-class telephone access rates which are so highly valued by SSA's customers.

Improve 800-Number Service

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Operations

SSA's national 800-number delivers outstanding service to the public and has fully achieved the purpose for which it was established--to provide all members of the public an inexpensive, convenient point of entry for conducting their business with Social Security. In fact, most Americans initiate their business with SSA by calling the 800-number. In FY 1998, 91.1 percent of callers got through to SSA on the first attempt, and 95.3 percent got through within 5 minutes of the first attempt. For FY 1999, 92.9 percent of callers got through on their first attempt and 95.8 percent got through within 5 minutes of the first attempt. For FY 2000 (through November), 92.6 percent of callers got through in their first attempt and 95.3 percent got through within 5 minutes of their first attempt.

Customers' expectations are changing, however. Analysis of customer feedback indicates that SSA's customers would like to use the 800-number for more and more of their business, and it implies that they would use it for more complex transactions--such as claims--if they were able to do so.

To respond to the challenges facing the national 800-number, we have implemented the following actions:

In November 1999, the Commissioner approved a number of short-term initiatives that were developed to improve customer service by increasing national 800-number network call answering capacity and to provide employees in the program service centers more time to work on pending workloads to help reduce expected growth.

In July 1999 the Office of Telephone Services convened Leadership Teams to assess the national 800-number network. The Teams developed recommendations and action plans for improving 800-number service and operations in the following areas:

• TSR Resource Utilization

• Single Point of Contact

• Teleservice Center Leave

• Expansion/Improvement of Automated Services

Another management challenge is to enhance the accuracy of services provided via the 800-number. SSA's quality assurance data show for the 12-month period ending December 1999 that, while the accuracy of calls affecting payment actions processed over the 800-number is high--that is 95.4 percent--the accuracy of other services provided was only 81.8 percent.

SSA also recognizes the importance of courtesy to good customer service and is committed to, at a minimum, maintaining current courtesy ratings for the 800-number service.

Responding to these customer challenges, this Key Initiative will help us accomplish the following:

• Expand services available and percent processed to completion while maintaining world-class access rates.

• Work toward improving service accuracy to at least 90 percent, and

• Successfully transition to new technology (for example, implement the new FTS 2001 contract and procure new call distribution technology) without disruption to customer service.

Improve Field Office Reception Process, Reception Area Environment and Waiting Times

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Operations

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to improve the SSA field office (FO) reception environment and processes, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.

We will identify and test various technologies, physical arrangements, furniture configurations and workflows, and determine those that serve our customers best. We will provide resources to SSA's FOs for improving reception processes, and the appearance and comfort of the waiting areas.

We have completed benchmarking to find best practices for reception area processes. We looked at best-in-business organizations and SSA offices. We focused on options to:

• Support SSA customer service standards.

• Improve metropolitan offices.

• Support our non-English speaking customer service initiatives.

• Improve interviewing and appointment processes.

• Improve reception traffic flow.

• Reduce waiting times.

• Increase the number of transactions that can be completed at the first point of contact.

• Improve the physical appearance and comfort of reception areas, e.g., design layouts, furniture configurations.

• Create reception areas that are user-friendly.

• Provide flexibility to meet local needs.

• Protect customer privacy.

• Increase reception efficiency, courtesy and professionalism.

Assuming successful piloting of the Visitor Information Services Analysis (VISA) software in five FOs, we plan to move forward to install VISA (or other queuing software) in FOs with high volumes of walk-in traffic.

Improve Field Office Telephone Service

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Operations

Demand for telephone service in the field office has always been great, although to what extent is not actually known. The large number of local telephone companies providing service to SSA's field offices and their varying levels of technology have made it difficult for the Agency to obtain data on call volumes and caller access to local offices. Customer feedback, however, strongly suggests that field office telephone service is less than world-class.

This Key Initiative to improve field office telephone service includes the following elements:

• Use of technology to improve customer service and access.

• Initiating an ongoing program of service observation to assess the accuracy and quality of service provided to field office callers.

• Initiating an ongoing program of field office caller recontact surveys to assess customer satisfaction and to identify service improvement needs.

• Developing a process to measure access for field office callers.

Improvements to the Disability Claims Process

Lead SSA Official: Director, Disability Process Redesign Team

SSA strives to deliver the highest levels of service by making fair, consistent and timely decisions at all adjudicative levels. However, applicants sometimes find the process complex, fragmented, confusing, impersonal and time consuming. Some also perceive the process as one in which different decisions are reached on similar cases at different levels of the administrative review process, thus requiring applicants to maneuver through multiple appeals steps.

Over the past few years, SSA and the State DDSs have been engaged in an ambitious series of initiatives to improve service delivery for millions of customers filing for, or appealing, disability claims. Two major areas of focus have been process unification and modifications to the disability claims process.

Process Unification: The Agency has been pursuing ongoing process unification initiatives. Our goal is to foster similar results on similar cases at all stages of the process through consistent application of laws, regulations and rulings. A number of initiatives have been implemented, including uniform training for SSA's 14,000 disability adjudicators, publication of nine Social Security rulings to clarify complex policy areas, and actions to increase consistency in SSA's quality assurance process. The initiatives have shown promise. Over the last several years, there has been a decline in the allowance rates at the hearing level and an increase in the initial allowance rates at the DDS level. This trend is consistent with our objective to make the correct decision as early in the process as possible.

Modifications to the Disability Claims Process: SSA has been testing various process improvements to determine what changes would help us provide better customer service. Several different modifications have been piloted both singularly and in combination. Data from the most significant testing model, the Full Process Model, show that increasing examiner authority and responsibility, using medical expertise better, and increasing interaction with claimants at the initial level result in better quality and customer service.

• Quality at the initial level was higher and we were able to correctly pay about the same number of people in one step (initial level), as we currently pay in two steps (initial level plus reconsideration level).

• Streamlining the process by eliminating the reconsideration step helps to both improve customer service and pay for the cost of enhanced up-front development.

• Providing claimants with the opportunity to talk with the disability decisionmaker at the initial level helps ensure that cases are fully documented and provides a safety net for some who are currently denied at the initial level and do not pursue an appeal.

We are now moving forward to combine the most successful elements with improvements to the hearings process, and to evaluate their effectiveness on a large scale. In 10 prototype States, SSA has implemented a series of changes that will improve the process by:

• Providing greater decisional authority to the disability examiner and more effective use of the expertise of the medical consultant in the disability determination process;

• Ensuring appropriate development and explanations in initial cases;

• Increasing opportunities for claimant interaction with the decisionmaker through a claimant conference opportunity at the initial level; and

• Simplifying the appeals process by eliminating the reconsideration step.

The ten States selected to participate in the prototype are: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, California (Los Angeles West and North DDS branches only), and New York (Albany and Brooklyn DDS branches only). The hearing offices that will be included in the prototype evaluation are those in the service areas of the respective DDSs participating in the prototype.

The process changes SSA has developed for the prototypes will work in tandem with process unification initiatives and a series of improvements being implemented in hearing offices nationwide.

Focusing on 10 States will enable SSA to further refine the process and learn more about potential operational impacts before moving to national implementation. Putting this complete process together will ensure that the changes meet our goal of improved service to disability applicants.

Other Process Testing. SSA is continuing to test the potential for a new position called the Disability Claim Manager (DCM). The DCM acts as the single point of contact for the claimant throughout the disability claims process at the initial level, responsible for both medical and non-medical aspects of the case. Formal evaluation of the DCM process began November 1, 1999 and runs through 2000.

Improvements to the Representative Payment Program

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

This Key Initiative will improve the representative payment program through better informed customers, a more reliable payee investigation and selection process, and a more meaningful payee monitoring program. It consists of the following five projects which, in part, are a result of careful analysis of the Final Report of the Representative Payment Advisory Committee (1996) and the Roll-Up Report of the Office of Inspector General: Monitoring Representative Payees (1997).

Implement Payee and Beneficiary Education and Support Project:

• Produce enhanced and multi-lingual informational and educational materials to inform payees of SSA's expectations and their rights and responsibilities.

• Conduct a national payee recruitment campaign to locate qualified candidates in areas where the need is greatest.

• Develop a process of ongoing education and support for representative payees.

• Produce informational and educational materials for beneficiaries who have a representative payee.

• Provide information and educational support to beneficiaries who are having difficulty managing their funds but do not yet need a representative payee.

Implement Custody Verification Demonstration Project:

• Provide information regarding the feasibility of suggesting an alternative approach to monitoring of parent payees with verified custody of minor children.

Implement Onsite Review Demonstration Project:

• Pilot onsite reviews of fee-for-service and volume service payee organizations.

• Based on pilot results, develop policy for review of organizational payees under an ongoing payee monitoring program.

Complete Critical Work Needed on the Representative Payee System:

• Fix problems that cause rep payee applications not to clear to active status on the RPS after being selected and processed against the MBR or SSR; known as Stuck 98s.

• Fix problems that result in the failure of termination data to transfer to the RPS for cases, including most of SSI terminated records.

• Fix conditions that lead to the inadequate or incomplete propagation of data from the MBR/SSR to the RPS. This has resulted in erroneous payments to deceased payees, failure to record benefit termination status, and inconsistent address data on the SSR and RPS.

• Correct the conditions that lead to the generation of erroneous alerts. Currently, the field must manually investigate and clear these alerts.

• Identify beneficiaries missing from the RPS, systematically load as many as possible, and list out the balance.

Develop an Ongoing Integrity Review Program:

• Establish an ongoing process to monitor the quality of SSA representative payee decisions and policies.

Information Exchange

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

SSA's data matching activities have proven highly effective in preventing and detecting benefit overpayments. The Information Exchange Key Initiative seeks to build on this success by taking advantage of improved technology and rapidly expanding online data bases to improve our programs and processes still further. This Key Initiative currently has five major emphases:

Information Exchange Strategy: For each major business process, SSA will identify opportunities for use of information exchange to accomplish all the following objectives: capture transaction inputs electronically, prevent/deter/detect overpayments and fraud, and eliminate SSA manual actions. Opportunities will be prioritized and an action plan defined.

Improved Information Exchange Policies: SSA has defined policies for evaluating requests for online or system-to-system access to SSA data. We are now in the process of preparing and issuing implementing instructions for the SSA components responsible for interagency agreements and the agencies seeking this kind of access to SSA records.

Capitalize on Immediate Opportunities for Overpayment/Fraud Prevention and Detection: SSA will continue to implement new or expanded information exchanges with other agencies (Federal, State, and local) and with private entities in order to prevent and detect overpayments. The following items are illustrative of such immediate opportunities for partnering with other entities:

SSA Access to State Records Online (SASRO): SSA has a programmatic need to obtain information (e.g., vital statistics, welfare, unemployment, wages, workers compensation) from various State sources that we have traditionally obtained manually. For the past few years, however, with the rapid growth of online State databases, SSA has been actively pursuing online query access on a State-by-State basis. We currently have at least limited access in 31 States. Since this approach has a relatively small cost and produces a relatively quick benefit for SSA in terms of customer service, we intend to add 10 additional States each year.

Concurrently, SSA is exploring alternative ways to gain online access to State records more efficiently. For example, as an efficient alternative to interagency agreements with (potentially) a score of State agencies, SSA is seeking access to databases that integrate information from multiple States--for example, the Office of Child Support Enforcement/National Directory of New Hires (OCSE/NDNH) databases. SSA is also designing a pilot of "negative verification"--that is, online or system-to-system checking of State information before paying SSA benefits. SSA believes that negative verification would be a strong tool for prevention of overpayments--versus after-the-fact detection via computer matching--and would be highly successful in addressing the General Accounting Office's (GAO) "high risk" concerns.

State Online Query (SOLQ): SSA has long provided programmatic data to States in batch mode. With SOLQ, SSA will provide State agencies immediate, online access to the information now provided overnight. It also will benefit SSA because it avoids phone calls and in-person visits to SSA field offices when information is needed urgently for a State service. SOLQ is currently in the pilot phase, which will entail five States. The pilot will culminate in an evaluation to determine costs, benefits, and appropriate next steps.

Exchanges with Federal Agencies:

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC): PBGC locates individuals who are entitled to benefits from failed pension plans. SSA will perform a batch match that provides PBGC access to 3 wage type queries to assist them in locating and calculating benefits due pensioners. In addition, we will be providing them with direct terminal access that will enable them to adjudicate their claims more quickly.

Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA): Each year SSA sends approximately 60,000 requests to verify periods of military service for claimants to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). The average response time is 60 days. VBA will provide SSA with online access that will enable SSA employees to verify military service. In turn, SSA will provide VBA with online access to SVES, which will improve their claims processing time and payment accuracy and will also eliminate the many inquiries made to SSA. The greatest savings will be derived from debt prevention. The amount of debt prevented nationally is estimated to be $50,000,000 per year.

Integrated Human Resources System (IHRS)

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

The purpose of this project is to provide integrated, automated support for all human resources (HR) workloads as well as accurate, timely, easy-to-use HR information. It will also provide a platform for maintaining, updating and using competency-based HR tools. Once implemented, the system will reduce HR paperwork burdens, enable sufficient and timely decisionmaking, and provide for employee self-service.

Among the HR business processes to be supported by IHRS are: Selection and Recruitment, Employee Training and Development, Equal Employment Opportunity, Labor Management Relations, Employee Benefits, Employee Services, Performance Management and Incentives, Position Management, Suggestions, Health and Safety, and Salary Administration.

Interactive Video Teletraining

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

For the past 4 years, SSA has been delivering interactive video teletraining (IVT), using one-way video (of the instructor to the students) and two-way audio communication. IVT is an effective, economical way to provide fully interactive training to students who are not co-located with the instructor. By the end of FY 1999, SSA's IVT system provided IVT access to 75 percent of its offices. With the near completion of an expansion initiative begun in 1997 and third party documentation showing the benefits of IVT to the Agency, SSA is now looking at the possibility of rolling out IVT to all remaining SSA offices.

Intelligent Workstations/Local Area Networks (IWS/LAN)

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Systems

The IWS/LAN platform is the foundation for expert systems, on-line "help" features, interactive training, on-line human resources management functions, and many other Key Initiatives. It is also the enabler for redesign of core business processes for increased efficiency. For example, the Electronic Disability System (eDIB) will run under the new client-server architecture.

SSA began installing IWS/LAN in late 1996. By the time the rollout is virtually completed--in FY 2000--over 96,000 new workstations will be in place. SSA's FY 2001 budget assumes that this technology will save about 1,900 Federal and State Disability Determination Service workyears beginning in the year 2001 when compared to the FY 1998 base.

Leadership Training/Career Development

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources

SSA recognizes the need for strong leadership as the Agency moves forward in an environment of shrinking resources and expanding workloads. The Agency is also committed to developing and preparing managers of tomorrow with knowledge and skills to lead and shape SSA's programs in the 21st century. This initiative is designed to provide managers with the leadership skills necessary to:

• Successfully deliver service to a diverse customer base;

• To operate within a streamlined organizational framework with increasing spans of control; and

• To develop and nurture a rapidly changing workforce.

The leadership training/career development (LTCD) initiative will identify new, essential competencies that managers will require and will provide a continuous learning environment in which new managers will be trained on those competencies and established managers will be able to sharpen their skills.

Market Measurement Program

Lead SSA Official: Senior Advisor, Customer Service Integration

The integrated Market Measurement Program (MMP) will provide complete, compatible and current data gathered from all Agency market segments to ensure that SSA continually has the right information from the right people to inform Agency planning and decisionmaking. The MMP includes a variety of data collection mechanisms that, taken together, give SSA a full range of information about its market. The MMP divides SSA's market into three segments: Customers, Workforce and Stakeholders. Each segment has its own strategy of data collection mechanisms designed to gather the best information possible using efficient and practical methods.

• The Customer Measurement Strategy will provide information from all SSA's major customer groupings and consists of six data collection methods: customer segment analysis, interaction tracking, comment cards, special studies, best practices inventory, and customer complaint/compliment system (i.e., Talking and Listening to Customers).

• The Workforce Measurement Strategy uses surveys to collect information about employees' satisfaction with the workplace. Research indicates a strong and direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. This information will help the Agency learn how to enhance the work environment so world-class service is possible.

• The Stakeholder Measurement Strategy entails various data collection mechanisms specifically tailored to three major stakeholder groups:
  1. Oversight, business partners, advocacy and business groups, unions and management and employee associations;

  2. Employers; and

  3. The general public.

The Market Measurement Program (MMP) Clearinghouse has been developed as a central repository of all reports of findings resulting from the various Agency data collection activities under the MMP. It is part of the Agency's Executive Management Information System (EMIS). Employees have one place to look for information from customers, employees and stakeholders about needs, expectations and satisfaction.

Notice Improvements

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

SSA sends its customers 240 million notices annually. The Pacific Consulting Group concluded--and SSA agrees--that improving notices provides the greatest opportunity for improving customer satisfaction. As part of this Key Initiative, SSA will improve the following five specific types of notices found to be most problematic:

Title II Overpayment Notices: SSA releases 3.5 million of these notices annually, and they are a frequent cause of customer confusion and/or dissatisfaction. SSA will improve notice language and include more case-specific information in order to provide letters that are clearer and more complete. We anticipate this will be a long-term improvement effort as it is reliant on a rewrite of the Master Beneficiary Record to create additional data fields.

Field Office Notice System (FONS): FONS is a notice production system that enables SSA field offices to compose notices using stock letters and case-specific inserts. An estimated 12 million FONS notices are released annually. FONS, however, is an outdated utility, not amenable to modification or expansion. SSA is developing a replacement for FONS called the Distributed Online Correspondence System (DOCS). This new system will allow service and teleservice representatives to see field office notices online rather than relying on the customer to supply a copy of their notice.

Manual Notices: There are approximately 150 manual notices--most of which are preprinted form letters about the disability programs. These notices do not meet SSA's quality standards, contain superseded policy information, and must be replaced.

SSI Overpayment Notices: Currently, many types of SSI overpayment notices are excluded from automated processing because of certain case characteristics that the system cannot interpret correctly. Over the next 2 years, SSA plans to eliminate two of the major barriers to automation, eliminating about a half million manual notices annually.

SSI Award Notices: Approximately half a million SSI award and 12 million other SSI notices are sent each year. Over the next several years, SSA will improve the clarity and format of these notices based on customer feedback. We will also begin to add computational worksheets to help explain how we arrived at the customer's benefit amount.

Paperless Processing Centers

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Systems

The initial implementation of the Paperless Program Service Center (PSC) system took place in the Mid-Atlantic PSC (MATPSC) in one module in May 1999. The implementation was successful, and was followed with implementations in the Great Lakes PSC (GLPSC) and Western PSC (WNPSC). As of December 1999, seven modules are implemented in MATPSC, 7 in GLPSC and 4 in WNPSC. The Y2K implementation moratorium as well as operational reasons has halted further expansion until late January. Funding has been approved for completion of these three sites. Expansion of the system to the remaining three PSCs as well as the Office of Central Operations is scheduled to begin in CY 2000 (pending funding approval).

Since initial implementation, there has been two releases of software as well as supporting Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS) upgrades to guarantee the system was Y2K compatible. The Project Scope Agreement for the next major release (1.2) is under development for a FY 2000 release. The major functionality in this release is an archival process.

The GLPSC paperless pilot project has been shutdown. Conversion of these work actions is currently underway.

Plain Language

Lead SSA Official: Senior Advisor, Customer Service Integration

The main purpose of this Key Initiative is to make SSA documents clear for their intended audiences, thus reducing the time employees spend with customers clarifying and explaining our written correspondence.

SSA is complying with the President's Plain Language Government Writing Initiative directing departments and agencies to incorporate plain language into their documents, as follows:

1. All new documents that explain how to obtain benefits or how to comply with program requirements,

2. All proposed and final rulemaking documents and regulations, and

3. Active old documents in the above categories.

A Plain Language Steering Committee leads the design and implementation of the initiative.

Successful implementation of plain language may require acquisition and installment of off-the-shelf plain language support software. The Steering Committee is looking at the acquisition of such software.

This initiative includes a comprehensive two-year training plan.

• In July 1999, SSA made a desk-to-desk distribution of a Commissioner's Bulletin entitled "Renewed Emphasis on Writing in Plain Language."

• In October 1999, SSA Plain Language Standards were issued to all SSA employees.

• SSA produced a videotape to introduce Plain Language to all employees.

• All core writers and editors in headquarters who generate high volume public correspondence received 16 hours of interactive plain language training in FY 1999.

• 120 employees who prepare low volume sensitive, external correspondence received day training via IVT or classroom as part of a pilot to determine appropriate outcome method for additional training. The pilot ended in December 1999.

• A decision has not yet been made as to how to train employees responsible for preparing high volume internal correspondence.

PolicyNet/Policy Repository

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

PolicyNet/Policy Repository is a project that improves SSA's ability to make policy-related decisions better, faster, and more cost-effectively in all stages of the policymaking process. The PolicyNet and Policy Repository projects are complementary and mutually supportive. Together, they will provide cost-effective, Intranet-based access to the latest policy-related information to users (both internal and external) nationwide.

PolicyNet is the entire communications system envisioned for our redesigned policymaking environment. It relies on both groupware technologies and new work processes to support proactive policy making through the systematic sharing, sorting, organizing, and accessing of information related to policy development, evaluation and dissemination. As part of this effort, SSA intends to get early input into the policy process from end-users and stakeholders (both internal and external) through nationwide forums and use of the Internet. We anticipate that the early input will enable SSA to make its policy deliberations with a better knowledge of the positions of those with interests that affect our policies.

The Policy Repository will replace the antiquated system we now have to house and publish policy-related instructions, regulations, rulings, and other policy-related documents. The current system stores documents in a number of different formats and locations, and there is no way to coordinate the materials consistently or to issue updates quickly and in an automated environment. The Policy Repository will allow us to modernize the infrastructure in order to consolidate policy materials, link them together electronically, and deliver a single, consistent presentation of policy to the users.

Preparing for the Year 2000

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Systems

Preparing for the change of century date--from 1999 to 2000--has been the biggest challenge ever to face the technology industry. At SSA our national data center maintains and operates hundreds of mission-critical systems supported by over 35 million lines of in-house computer code, as well as hundreds of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) vendor products that could have been affected by the Year 2000 (Y2k) changeover.

As a result of our planning and proactive approach to the change in century date, all of SSA's mission-critical systems have been made Year-2000 compliant, tested, and implemented. The automated systems for 50 State Disability Determination Services (DDSs) have also been made Year-2000 compliant. In addition, all of our data exchanges with all of our trading partners are Year-2000 compliant.

SSA's Y2k Business Continuity and Contingency Plan further ensured continuity of operations. All of our local contingency plans assured that January 2000 payments would be issued on time, that our systems would function smoothly, and that we would deliver all our services to the American public.

Service to the Non-English Speaking (NES) and Limited English Proficient (LEP) Public

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner of Disability, Insurance, and Security Programs

We recognize that our customers come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and that many do not speak or have limited proficiency in English. They generally need help in communicating with us. This Key Initiative ensures that our clients, regardless of ability to communicate in English, receive full access to SSA World-Class service. Better communication with NES and LEP clients results in the increased integrity of our programs. Claims taken by bilingual employees reduce the potential for fraud introduced by middlemen interpreters.

We use automated management information (MI) regarding our NES and LEP customers to make hiring and staffing decisions. We can place bilingual staff in locations where they can serve the greatest number of customers in their preferred language.

In the last several years, we improved service to NES and LEP clients.

• We increased the number of bilingual staff and made them available in the right places.

• We established a Spanish gate to our 800- number.

• We placed the burden of providing interpreter services on SSA.

• We gave our employees cultural diversity training and provided expanded language skills training to bilingual staff.

• We are capturing customer language preferences in our major systems and making this information available online to our employees. We annotate language preference in all initial claims and representative payee cases. We display language preference information on Title II and Title XVI queries.

Space Modernization and Improvements

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management

The purpose of this Key Initiative (KI) is to provide all SSA employees with user-friendly, modern office facilities that will meet their needs well into the 21st century. This KI includes:

• Major renovation of SSA Headquarters buildings as scheduled under the Woodlawn Master Plan.

• Construction of a new Child-Care-Center at Headquarters.

• Renovations to field offices (FOs) and hearing offices (HOs) nationwide.

• Upgrades of our larger facilities, e.g., Program Service Centers (PSCs) and Teleservice Centers (TSCs).

• Site preparation and installation of ergonomic furniture for IWS/LAN.

In addition, Child Care Centers have been constructed at the Western, Northeastern, and Great Lakes PSCs. Other projects are planned to improve the environment in the PSCs, including lighting enhancements, energy conservation programs, mechanical system upgrades, elevator upgrades, and replacement of the building exterior facades. Child Care and Fitness Centers have been expanded at the Wilkes-Barre Data Operations Center.

In FY 1999, renovations to the (Headquarters) East Building were completed and the building was occupied.

Speech Recognition Software

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability Income Security Programs

The main purpose of this Key Initiative is to reduce the time required to produce OHA hearing decisions and correspondence, by implementing the use of speech recognition software.

Speech recognition software will eliminate the time-consuming hand-offs and transfers required when dictation is used. These hand-offs and transfers significantly increase the time it takes to issue a claimant's decision.

Currently, about 25 percent of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions are produced by dictation. The dictation process requires hand-offs and is extremely labor-intensive.

The tapes, containing the dictated decisions, are often moved between hearing offices (HOs), due to workload and the location of staff resources. Replacing dictation with speech recognition software will eliminate the need for clerical staff to type drafts.

Prototype testing of speech recognition software in the OHA environment was completed in March 1999. A contractor is compiling the results. The current generation of software has the ability to approximate the following requirements defined by OHA:

• 95 percent accuracy rate after sufficient training, and

• Ability to process 90 words per minute.

Because the testing results indicate the software has the potential for meeting these requirements, a pilot using the speech recognition software and a cost-benefit assessment will be conducted in FY 2000.

Strengthening Public Understanding of the Social Security Programs

Lead SSA Officials:

Deputy Commissioner for Communications Deputy Commissioner for Operations

There are two initiatives to ensure that by the year 2005, 9 of 10 Americans are knowledgeable about the Social Security programs: Educate the Public About Social Security and the Public Understanding Measurement System (PUMS).

Educate the Public About Social Security

This Key Initiative includes the public information products and external liaison activities needed to increase public understanding of Social Security programs. It also includes The SSA Ambassadors program, formerly a separate initiative.

The Educate the Public Key Initiative centers on the strategies laid out in the annual National Communications Plan, which identifies products and delivery systems, designed to strengthen public understanding. This plan is based on the data and analysis of the annual PUMS surveys and other SSA management reports.

The Social Security Statement (formerly the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES): The PUMS data indicates that receiving a Social Security Statement significantly increases an individual's knowledge of Social Security programs. As required by law, every eligible adult worker age 25 and older for whom an address can be obtained will automatically receive annual statements of his/her earnings under Social Security and benefit estimates based upon those earnings.

Ambassadors Program: In FY 2001, SSA will continue its Ambassador program, stressing the value of the Social Security Statement and the PUMS survey results. Additionally, we will continue to train new field office managers and public affairs specialists in communications skills needed to educate the public during ongoing local public education activities and events. We will also conduct our Annual National Public Affairs training for all of SSA public affairs specialists.

The Public Understanding Measurement System (PUMS)

The PUMS will continue to provide data on the public's knowledge of Social Security programs and track changes in the public's level of knowledge through the year 2005. The PUMS will also evaluate the effectiveness of our National Communications Plan in achieving our strategic goal.

Strengthening Research, Evaluation and Policy Development

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Policy

As an independent agency, SSA has assumed a leadership role in addressing critical long and short-term Social Security issues by framing policy discussions, refining policy to meet the needs of society, conducting in-house research, and promoting research by others. To accomplish this, SSA will:

• Complete plans for revitalization of external and internal resources in the critical areas of retirement income policy, disability and SSI program research, modeling capability, extramural research infrastructure, and data availability,

• Build policy evaluation capacity,

• Strengthen data for policy researchers, both within and outside SSA, and

• Develop mechanisms for broader input on research efforts.

In addition, SSA will develop a customer satisfaction survey and data collection mechanism in order to obtain feedback on the responsiveness of our research, evaluation and policy analysis products, as well as the extent to which we help identify and explain new and emerging issues for decisionmakers.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Posteligibility (PE) Modernization

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Operations

This Key Initiative has six major purposes:

• Increase SSI payment accuracy and process efficiency.

• Reduce SSI processing times.

• Deter SSI fraud.

• Reduce SSI debt.

• Support the SSI high-risk initiative.

• Improve public service.

The Modernized Supplemental Security Income Claims System (MSSICS) automated the SSI claims process, including a great deal of user requested functionality. However, several SSI processes (e.g., appeals, netting, overpayments, and notices) were omitted. The deliverables in this KI are enhancements to SSI systems and processes. These changes will allow the SSI system to comply with policy, increase user compliance with current procedures, reduce debt, and result in operational work-year savings. The following systems projects are the main focus of this KI:

MSSICS Appeals Program for Controlling Reconsiderations and Hearings: Automation of the SSI appeals process will allow more appeals to be processed within MSSICS, increasing data propagation, accuracy and efficiencies. MSSICS will intake and control the SSI appeal until final disposition. The project will provide MSSICS functionality to process awards and denials, create better workload controls and credits, and automate notices. MSSICS claims will remain active for the interviewer to update and compare previous statements made by the applicant, thereby improving quality and reducing the potential for fraud.

Database to Control SSI Alerts: This project will develop a central database to control, generate, and/or replace alerts. This database will improve SSA's ability to manage its SSI workloads and supports such initiatives as Title XVI debt reduction, improved SSI payment accuracy, and information exchange. It will also provide management information reports for external interfaces for the following alerts:

1. Savings bond match replacement alerts.

2. The HCFA computer match of SSI recipients not reporting admissions to Title XIX facilities.

3. Federal Workers Compensation match.

4. Department of Defense match.

5. Veterans Administration interface of spouse portion of augmented benefits.

6. OCSE match (wage and unemployment alerts).

System to Help Users with SSI Overpayment Computations and Notices: Enhancements to the SSI overpayment process will provide users with the systems support needed for several types of SSI diaries that are currently manual processes. This project supports fraud/debt reduction and notice improvement.

MSSICS PE Path for Service Representatives, Teleservice Representatives and Title II Claims Representatives: The development of a specific MSSICS path for non-Title XVI employee specialists (i.e., Service Representatives, Teleservice Center Representatives and Title II Claims Representatives) will support effective processing of PE events such as change of address or telephone number, direct deposit, and death reports. We expect both payment accuracy and efficiency to improve with this specialized automated MSSICS path for these employees. This path will allow easy access to specific screens for input of PE actions.

Automation of Remaining SSI Actions and Reduction of MSSICS Exclusions and Limitations: Automating the remaining non-MSSICS PE events and reducing the current limitations and exclusions will allow SSA to retire outdated CICS screens and reduce the need to search paper listings for detailed case related information. Direct entry of PE actions via MSSICS will reduce the time involved in writing down the information and then transcribing it into the system.

Talking and Listening to Customers

Lead SSA Official: Senior Advisor, Customer Service Integration

In establishing a single, Agency-wide customer feedback system, called Talking and Listening to Customers (TLC), SSA will advance its goal to provide customer responsive, world class service. Through TLC, SSA will capture and address customers' spontaneous compliments, complaints and suggestions on various aspects of SSA's programs, policies, laws and service.

TLC will serve the dual purpose of addressing individual customer concerns, and identifying and supporting analysis and action on larger, systemic issues. Data collected in TLC will support SSA's business planning, policy development, communication strategies and operational and service enhancements.

Current and planned activities include:

• Continued execution of communication strategy for employees and customers.

• Development of software.

• Development and execution of training for pilot.

• Development, execution and evaluation of pilot.

• Full national implementation.

Title II System Redesign

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Systems

The goal of the Title II System Redesign initiative is to provide a single system for processing virtually all initial claims and client-initiated postentitlement actions in an online interactive mode. The backbone of the redesigned system will be the use of common code to perform processing of common business functions. When a business function is common to two or more processes, a single business module will be developed and shared by all of the processes that require it. The 28 separate postentitlement programs and the Claims Automated Processing System (CAPS), are being retired as Title II redesign software is released. The net effect will be a greater capability to process work at the customer's first point of contact with the Agency, online user access to more comprehensive customer information, and an automated system that is easier and less costly to maintain and modify quickly. These benefits, in turn, translate into improved customer service and avoidance of hundreds of work years of effort annually.

Title XVI Debt

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to promote prevention, detection, and resolution of overpayments. There is a greater emphasis on prevention and detection because there are much lower administrative costs and much greater program savings in preventing and limiting the size of overpayments than there is in "resolution," which involves appeals and waiver of recovery requests as well as recovery actions. The initiative includes efforts to:

• Improve payment quality by targeting the most error-prone policy areas;

• Reduce payment errors through improved POMS instructions compliance;

• Reduce payment errors through improved automation of SSI processes;

• Improve redetermination profiling to focus on cases with the greatest potential for change;

• Enhance electronic data collection; and

• Pursue legislative simplification of the SSI program.

These are generally enhancements to the prevention, detection, and resolution tools already in place. The Agency is establishing a comprehensive, long-term plan to control and limit overall debt in order to maintain public and congressional confidence in the administration of the SSI program. Following are the activities included in the plan:

• Computer matching with:
  • HCFA to detect nursing home admissions monthly.

  • The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) records to detect wages reported by employers and records of unemployment compensation and improved selection to focus on cases with the greatest potential for error.

  • The Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt to detect ownership of savings bonds.

  • The military pension records of the Department of Defense.

  • The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) records of requests by aliens to leave the United States and return, and INS records of deportation.

  • The Department of Labor's records of Federal employees receiving workers' compensation.

  • The Railroad Retirement Board increased in frequency to every month.
• Creation of a diary alert database to monitor alerts from external computer matching.

• Piloting of a computer match with the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to identify persons having cash transactions of $10,000 or more to see if it is cost-effective to conduct such matching on an ongoing basis.

• Project to increase detection of persons ineligible for SSI because they are prisoners.

• Online access to databases at the OCSE/NDNH and individual States (SASRO).

• Increased management focus on quality and adherence to POMS.

• Review of frequency of redeterminations to determine if a 3-year cycle would be more effective than the current cycle.

• Legislative proposals to simplify the program.

• Improved automation of SSI processes to reduce payment errors and better implement debt resolution.

Update Medical Listings

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

The Listing of Impairments, or listings, contain examples of medical conditions and medical findings, arranged by body system. The criteria in the listings are so severe that disability can be presumed for anyone who is not performing substantial gainful activity and who has an impairment that "meets" the criteria of a listing. Since the listings cannot include every possible impairment or combination of impairments a person could have, SSA's rules also provide that a person's impairment(s) can "equal" the severity of a listing. The listings are included in an appendix in SSA's regulations.

A number of the listings have not been updated in several years, and may no longer reflect the state-of-the-art in medicine and disability evaluation. Therefore, updating the listings is a priority activity for SSA. SSA is reviewing listings by body system, although in some cases the Agency expects to address only particular listings and impairments when that makes more sense. SSA's strategy is to undertake the short-term fixes first and to eliminate inconsistencies among listings as it completes the review of each body system.

Updating different listings will entail different activities requiring expert input, research and public involvement. In most cases, SSA expects to address corresponding adult and childhood listings at the same time unless it is not appropriate to do so.

Video Teleconferencing (VTC)

Lead SSA Official: Deputy Commissioner for Disability Insurance Security Programs

The purpose of this Key Initiative is to use VTC technology to improve service delivery to customers, especially those who live in remote areas and to increase the ability of hearing offices to balance workloads through case transfers. This is a multifaceted initiative with several parts:

• Conduct hearings in remote sites via a VTC connection to a hearing office (HOs).

• Conduct hearings via VTC on cases transferred in from another HO for workload reasons.

• Connect medical experts (ME) and vocational experts (VE) to a hearing (in real time) via VTC or desktop video.

• Support our hearing process improvement (HPI) initiative by permitting Senior Attorneys to conduct formal pre-hearing conferences via VTC.

• Support VTC pilots in other SSA components.

• Improve our ability to quickly hear prison cases and Medicare cases where appellants or representatives are located in other areas of the country.

This technology will allow us to:

• Provide timely hearings to claimants living in remote areas, claimants who are incarcerated or appellants in some Medicare claims.

• Improve processing time for these cases.

• Increase Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) productivity due to reduced travel time and cost, and enhanced capacity to coordinate with experts.

• Increase the availability of experts to testify at hearings.

• Improve the ability of hearing offices to transfer workloads without the attendant travel costs for ALJs.

• Conduct formal pre-hearing conferences.

• Offer VTC access to other components of SSA for processing workloads.

Our Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) has conducted VTC hearings on a study basis in a few sites, and has established the viability of conducting hearings electronically. Expert witnesses can participate in the hearing from a privately owned videoconferencing site or a government facility, located close to their offices. Eventually, expert witnesses will be able to participate from their own offices via a desktop video camera. Desktop video has great potential for expanded uses as the equipment and bandwith improves.

Customers' responses to VTC service as well as productivity and workload impact will be followed closely as OHA moves ahead to deploy additional units in mid-FY 2000. Data from additional sites will be used to verify estimated return on investment before future rollout sites are selected. We are continuing to investigate the effectiveness of VTC for other purposes, such as continuing disability reviews and claimant conferences.