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GCN Home > 04/26/04 issue

New system to speed benefits process

By Mary Mosquera, GCN Staff

Social Security Administration expects to cut by 100 days the waiting period for individuals who apply for disability benefits once its new electronic claims system is finished in 2005.

“As it continues to roll out, we’ll see much more savings than now,” said Bill Gray, SSA’s deputy commissioner for systems.

A test site in North Carolina has shaved six days off the processing time. The disability process runs from when a person initially files a claim until a final decision is made on an appeal. Currently, the process can take longer than two years.

The electronic process will speed claims review and appeals decisions, and recipients will get benefits more quickly, Gray said.

It will replace the mostly paper process, which in recent years has bogged down, leading to a backlog of hundreds of thousands of claims. The average time to reach a decision on a simple new claim is 106 days, Gray said.

The Accelerated Electronic Disability System (AeDib) will move all components of disability claims adjudication and review to an electronic business process through an electronic disability folder. The electronic folders will be accessible to all SSA local, regional and state disability determination offices, as well as to hearings and appeals offices, and quality assurance staff. Each office will be able to work on claims by accessing and retrieving information in the folder.

Easy access

Most of the time saved in the electronic process involves simple disability claims—the category under which most filers fall—that get approved without the need for appeals, Gray said.

“What you have is a decreasing number of people that are going through the entire process. So in some ways, the days saved up front are more important because they affect everybody,” he said.

The public does not see the AeDib system, but disability filers will interface with it when they apply for benefits online at www.socialsecurity.gov. For disabled users applying online, the new system will comply with the accessibility requirements of Section 508, Gray said.

More news on related topics: Business Process Management, E-Government