April 2016 Board Meeting
04/21/2016
In the morning, the Board met with Dr. Paul Appelbaum, Chair of Committee to Evaluate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Capability Determination Process for Adult Beneficiaries, Institute of Medicine and his team. Mr. Appelbaum gave a presentation on the Committee’s recently published report on Financial Capability, “Informing Social Security’s Process for Financial Capability Determination.” This report was commissioned by SSA. The Board next met with the Stephen Evangelista, Associate Commissioner, Office of Data Exchange and Policy Publications (ODEPP), Office of the Associate Commissioner (OAC), SSA and his team. Mr. Evangelista discussed efforts to improve the Data Exchange process. In the afternoon, the Board met with SSA Inspector General Pat O’Carroll who will be retiring at the end of May 2016. The Board heard Mr. O’Carroll’s perspective on major challenges facing the agency, current investigations, and audits. The Board ended the day with a meeting with Marilyn Zahm, President, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Union Linda Stagno, Vice President for New York Region, Administrative Law Judge Union. The ALJ Union commissioned a report on the processing time of disability claims at the hearings level. Judge Zahm and Judge Stagno discussed ALJ workloads, challenges, and suggestions to improve the disability application process.