For most applicants who apply for Social Security disability benefits, the hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is the ultimate decision maker whether the applicant qualifies as disabled and is entitled to benefits, but now Social Security wants take any choice the applicant has in the matter away.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the publication of the new Social Security regulation that would allow Social Security, and only Social Security, to decide what type of hearing a claimant has, either in-person before a live judge or via Video Teleconferencing (VT) where the ALJ is in a different location than the claimant. The proposal from Social Security follows.
“We propose to revise and unify some of the rules that govern how, where, and when individuals appear for hearings before an administrative law judge at the hearings level and before a disability hearing officer at the reconsideration level of our administrative review process. At both levels, when we schedule a hearing, we propose that we will determine the manner in which the parties to the hearing will appear: by VTC [Video Teleconference], in person, or, under limited circumstances, by telephone. We would not permit individuals to opt out of appearing by VTC. We also propose that we would determine the manner in which witnesses to a hearing will appear.”
Previously, Social Security has contended that VTC hearings allow claimants to get a hearing scheduled faster than if they waited for an in-person hearing, but there is room for a lot of debate on that contention. This new proposal is one more step Social Security is taking to potentially make disability approvals more difficult.
The proposal must be published in the Federal Register for public comment and Social Security must consider comments before submitting a final proposal to the OMB for approval.
