We realize it may be a stretch for ordinary people to want to keep up with the comings and goings of the Social Security Administration, but sometimes circumstances permit where someone does want to follow the latest news regarding the agency due to a possible retirement or disability interest. This blog is an ongoing piecemeal of recent stories that have involved Social Security. Some are tidbits and some are important things that should be known in the world of retirement or disability and others are just interesting stories and nothing more.
The Vaccine Requirement For Federal Workers
The White House issued an update on the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for federal workers November 24, 2021. A statement from the White House indicated that 96.5 percent of federal employees are in compliance with the mandate. Below is a description of how the federal government determines compliance.
Employees who have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination or have a pending or approved exception request—with 92 percent of employees having received at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose.
Federal workers comprise a workforce of more than 3.5 million who work all over the country and around the world who are covered by the requirement. The compliance rate of federal workers is pretty impressive, but also shows there are a small percentage of workers who are not in compliance. The following statement was issued from the White House regarding these federal workers.
This week’s deadline wasn’t an end point. For those employees who are not yet in compliance, agencies are beginning a period of education and counseling, followed by additional enforcement steps, consistent with guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and the Office of Personnel Management. At any point, if an employee gets their first shot or submits an exception request, agencies will pause further enforcement to give the employee a reasonable amount of time to become fully vaccinated or to process the exception request. This next stage of the process will not result in disruptions to Government services and operations and will result in more employees becoming vaccinated.
Better Screening Of Medical Consultants Needed
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report to Congress that shows the Social Security Administration needs to take action to ensure that medical consults who are responsible for disability claims be better trained and screened. Below are the key takeaways from the report.
SSA cannot be sure that the state agencies’ consultants are qualified and trained to appropriately inform decisions on disability claims. SSA policy requires state agencies to screen their consultants by checking them against a database of individuals barred from participating in federal programs. Also, SSA policy sets requirements for state agencies to provide initial and follow-up training. However, state agencies told us they do not always do so.
Of the 52 agencies:
- 14 said they did not consistently perform required checks on consultants either when hiring or annually, and
- Nine said they did not give consultants some element of required initial or refresher training.
We also looked into whether paying consultants per claim rather than an hourly or salary rate—which 19 agencies do—affects the quality of their work. Our analysis of SSA data did not find conclusive evidence of a link between how a state pays consultants and the quality of disability decisions in each state.
