2020 Annual Report of the SSI Program

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D. HISTORICAL NON-MEDICAL REDETERMINATION AND MEDICAL CONTINUING DISABILITY REVIEW DATA
1. Non-medical Redeterminations
Non-medical redeterminations are reviews of all of the non-medical factors of eligibility to determine whether a recipient is still eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and still receiving the correct payment amount. There are two types of these redeterminations: scheduled and unscheduled. All recipients are subject to scheduling for a non-medical redetermination at the discretion of the Social Security Administration (SSA). Every year SSA schedules non-medical redeterminations for the cases most likely to have payment error, but the agency can also schedule reviews for cases unlikely to have payment error. SSA completes unscheduled redeterminations on an as-needed basis when recipients report, or we discover, certain changes in circumstances that could affect the continuing SSI payment amount. The numbers of non-medical redeterminations completed fluctuate from year to year due to variation in: (1) the numbers of unscheduled redeterminations completed; and (2) the numbers of scheduled redeterminations that we are able to complete during the fiscal year because of limitations on administrative resources and the impact of other workload requirements on the field offices. Non-medical redeterminations that we cannot complete in the scheduled fiscal year carry over into the next fiscal year.
Between scheduled redeterminations, SSA uses the limited issue process to detect situations that have the potential to affect the continuing eligibility of SSI recipients and SSI payment amounts. SSA conducts periodic computer matches between its own systems and the systems of other Federal and State agencies to determine if the income and resources information on SSI recipients’ records conflicts with data that we obtain from the other systems. We post an indicator to the individual’s Supplemental Security Record1 when a match detects conflicting information. We select these limited issue cases for field office review of the issues for which we posted indicators. Beginning in fiscal year 2007, non-medical redetermination completions reported in SSA’s Agency Financial Report2 include limited issue completions.
Table V.D1 provides historical data on numbers of non-medical redeterminations and limited issues by fiscal year. A more detailed discussion of non-medical redeterminations can be found in the annual Report on Supplemental Security Income Non-medical Redeterminations.3
 
Table V.D1.—SSI Non-medical Redeterminationsa and Limited Issues Completed, Fiscal Years 1986‑2019 
c  1,900
d 1,597
e 1,725
 e1,071
 e 692
 e  900
 e1,390
f2,223
 f234
 f2,457
 f2,324
 f180
 f2,505

a
Effective fiscal year 2007, total non-medical redeterminations reported by SSA include limited issues.

b
Data not available.

c
Decrease in number of non-medical redeterminations completed in fiscal year 1994 due to low-error profile redeterminations not being completed from January through September 1994.

d
Effective fiscal year 1995, we selected approximately 200,000 fewer non-medical redeterminations annually due to a change from a 3‑year to a 6-year redetermination cycle for low-error profile cases.

e
We selected fewer non-medical redeterminations in fiscal years 2005-09 due to limitations on administrative funding.

f
Includes non-medical redeterminations completed during the 53 operating weeks in fiscal years 2011 and 2016.
Note: Totals do not necessarily equal the sums of rounded components.

2. Medical Continuing Disability Reviews
Following enactment of the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980, section 221(i) of the Social Security Act generally requires SSA to review the continuing eligibility of Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) disabled beneficiaries at least every 3 years in order to ensure that such beneficiaries continue to meet the definition of disability. No legislation required the same review process for disabled SSI recipients at that time. Although the Committee on Finance of the Senate stated in its report on this legislation that the same medical continuing disability review (CDR) procedures should apply to both the OASDI and SSI programs, no new legislation amended Title XVI to accomplish this. Section 1614(a)(4) of the Act gives SSA discretionary authority to conduct periodic CDRs on SSI recipients. On September 28, 1994, SSA issued a Federal Register notice that periodic SSI CDRs would begin on October 1, 1994. In 1994 and again in 1996 Congress enacted new legislation adding some mandates for CDRs under the SSI program.
Public Law 103-296 required SSA to conduct CDRs on a minimum of 100,000 SSI recipients during each of fiscal years 1996, 1997, and 1998. In addition, during the same period, the law required SSA to redetermine the medical eligibility, using the adult initial eligibility criteria, of at least one-third of all SSI child recipients who reached age 18 after April 1995 within 1 year of attainment of age 18. Such medical redeterminations for persons turning age 18 could count toward the 100,000 CDRs required by the law.
Public Law 104-193 required SSA to redetermine the medical eligibility of all SSI child recipients who attain age 18 based on the adult initial eligibility criteria. This law also required that SSA perform a CDR:
Public Law 105-33 provided SSA some additional flexibility in the scheduling of these categories of CDRs.
Beginning in 1993, SSA developed a screening process for OASDI cases scheduled for a CDR in order to handle the large CDR workload mandated by these various provisions. The screening process included a mailer questionnaire for selected cases. In 1996, SSA extended this profiling process to SSI adults who were scheduled for a CDR. In fiscal year 2019, we deferred full medical reviews for 491,566 adult SSI recipients scheduled for a CDR as a result of the screening process, including recipients concurrently receiving an OASDI benefit.
In 2007, SSA implemented a streamlined failure to cooperate (FTC) process for medical CDRs. Under this process, recipients who fail to comply with the field office requests for information necessary for processing their medical CDRs have their benefits suspended. After 12 consecutive months of suspension for noncompliance, SSA terminates their eligibility for disability benefits. SSA initially terminated 8,194 centrally initiated medical CDRs involving SSI recipients in fiscal year 2019 as a result of the streamlined FTC process. A more detailed discussion of CDRs can be found in the Annual Report of Medical Continuing Disability Reviews.4
For individuals who receive both OASDI and SSI benefits on the basis of their own disability, SSA initiates CDRs as Title II CDRs, and the results of the review affect eligibility for benefits under both programs.5 Table V.D2 presents the numbers of centrally initiated periodic medical CDRs of SSI recipients we performed under Titles II and XVI since 1993. Tables V.D3 and V.D4 present the latest available detailed results6 on CDRs of SSI recipients performed in the most recent 15 years.7 These tables include only cases for which we conducted a full medical review. In particular, they do not include:
In contrast with the allowance data presented in section V.C, we tabulate the CDR data on a cohort basis by the date of initial CDR decision.
Table V.D2.—SSI Continuing Disability Full Medical Reviews a by Year of Initial Decision, Fiscal Years 1993-2019
b

a
Excludes reviews conducted outside of the centrally initiated CDR scheduling process.

b
Fewer than 500.
Note: Totals do not necessarily equal the sums of rounded components.

 
 
Table V.D3.—SSI Disabled Adult Reviews: Disposition a of Medical Continuing Disability
Reviews by Year of Initial Decision  and Level of Decision, Fiscal Years 2005-2019  
Fiscal year of
initial DDS
decisionb

a
Data reflect results as of February 2020. The ultimate numbers of continuations and cessations are subject to change until all appeals are final.

b
For years prior to 2005, see the most recent Annual Report of Continuing Disability Reviews.

c
Percentage of decisions at this level.

d
Percentage of cessations at this level appealed to next level.

e
We do not reflect the status and disposition of cases in the Federal courts here. However, we have included information on the status and disposition at the hearing and Appeals Council levels for cases remanded to us by the courts. The excluded experience in the Federal courts has a minimal impact on the number of continuations.

f
Number of persons appealing beyond the reconsideration level.

g
Less than 0.05 percent.

 
 
Table V.D4.—SSI Disabled Child Reviews: Disposition a of Medical Continuing Disability
Reviews by Year of Initial Decision  and Level of Decision, Fiscal Years 2005-2019  
Fiscal year of
initial DDS
decisionb

a
Data reflect results as of February 2020. The ultimate numbers of continuations and cessations are subject to change until all appeals are final.

b
For years prior to 2005, see the most recent Annual Report of Continuing Disability Reviews.

c
Percentage of decisions at this level.

d
Percentage of cessations at this level appealed to next level.

e
We do not reflect the status and disposition of cases in the Federal courts here. However, we have included information on the status and disposition at the hearing and Appeals Council levels for cases remanded to us by the courts. The excluded experience in the Federal courts has a minimal impact on the number of continuations.

f
Number of persons appealing beyond the reconsideration level.

g
Less than 0.05 percent.


1
The main administrative file for the SSI program.

2
Publication No. 31-231 is available at www.ssa.gov/finance/.

3
The most recent such report can be found at www.ssa.gov/legislation/FY2014SSINon-MedicalRedeterminationReport.pdf.

4
The most recent such report can be found at www.ssa.gov/legislation/FY%202015%20CDR%20Report.pdf.

5
Individuals concurrently receiving OASDI and SSI benefits where the OASDI benefit is not based on the individual’s disability are initiated as Title XVI CDRs. The results of the review only affect the individual’s eligibility for SSI benefits.

6
We included in these tables the SSI recipients whose benefits terminate as a result of medical CDRs. We report estimates of Federal SSI program savings resulting from the cessation of benefits to Congress in the Annual Report of Continuing Disability Reviews. The most recent such report, issued August 21, 2019, presented estimates of the effects of CDRs conducted in fiscal year 2015.

7
For years prior to 2003, see the most recent Annual Report of Continuing Disability Reviews for the summary of results for all years since 1993.


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