for anyone in the SSDI, disability insurance benefits claims procedure, PLEASE DO SOME FOLLOW-UP ON YOUR CLAIM with the DDS folks!
see if a DDS employee from YOUR STATE has taken your file home to work on also! Be a royal pain in the butt, and refer them to the Wisc. DDS scandal!
here's the PAINFUL REASON WHY! how would you feel IF happened to you? ********************************
judy, thanks for forwarding this! I feel so bad for all these wisc. folks waiting 3 yrs. to get ALJ hearings and BEING APPROVED FOR SSDI! person was cleared; how wrong! very disturbing story here! thanks for sharing it; i'll forward to others! bettyg, iowa
The confidential files of six Wisconsin residents who had sought Social Security disability benefits were lost for months, as were documents from seven other files, after a Social Security employee took them home to work on them.
In a bizarre twist, the mother of one applicant received an anonymous call in November from a man who had "very specific" information on her son's medical condition, records show.
The caller told her that his Social Security file, along with others, had been found in a downtown Milwaukee Dumpster, according to federal investigative reports.
In addition to private medical information, the files include Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers of family members, dates of birth and work history - all of which could be used by identity thieves.
All of the applicants had been waiting at least two years for a final decision on whether they qualify for disability benefits when their files were lost, delaying decisions even further.
The Social Security Administration allows employees nationwide to work on confidential files at home under a program called Flexiplace, which has come under fire in the past because of privacy concerns.
The employee who took the files home told authorities she believes some were left behind when she fled her home last summer because of domestic violence. She told authorities she had kept them in a locked two-drawer file cabinet.
Four of the files were never found and two others, including the one involving the phone call, were anonymously mailed back to the office in early December, said Carmen Moreno, a Social Security spokeswoman.
Documents from the seven other files also were sent back anonymously to the agency's Milwaukee office in separate packages in early December.
Social Security employees are gathering medical and other information for the four files that were completely lost, Moreno said.
The employee who took the files home was CLEARED of any wrongdoing but is NO LONGER ALLOWED to work at home, according to James Marshall, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Council 215, which represents 5,000 hearings and appeals staff nationwide. Moreno, however, said that an internal investigation is continuing.
'Citizens deserve better' On Friday, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue asking for an accounting of the situation after being told of the security breach by a Journal Sentinel reporter.
"Wisconsin citizens deserve better . . . than to have their claims neglected and their confidential information put at risk," Ryan wrote. He serves on a subcommittee that oversees Social Security.
All of the people whose files or records were lost had applied for a hearing on their request for disability benefits in 2004, Moreno said. One had a hearing in early February and the others are still waiting to be scheduled.
The benefits for Social Security disability payments can range from $400 to $1,800 a month and include Medicare.
Letters notifying the six applicants that their files were found to be missing late last year were not sent until Feb. 7, according to Moreno. She said she "could not speculate" as to why the letters were not sent sooner.
The seven other people whose files were compromised have NOT been notified, she said, and administrators are still discussing the situation.
From the time the folders and records were found to be missing, she said, the applicants' Social Security numbers were being monitored "for any type of activity" that might involve identity theft or fraud. As of Friday she knew of no problems.
Moreno said that employees nationwide are allowed by union contract to take files home. In Milwaukee, 38 employees may take the files home.
The documents must be transported in a locked briefcase and stored in a locked safe or file cabinet in the employee's home. The files are to be logged in and out with a supervisor's approval.
"There are numerous opportunities for things to go wrong when employees take these files home, and the situation in Milwaukee appears to reflect that," said Marty Ford, co-chairwoman of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities task force on Social Security.
Ford testified before a congressional committee in 2003 against the policy of allowing Social Security Administration employees to take the confidential files home.
"Even if there is total trust that the employee is not going to do anything wrong, you don't know who else is in the household. Guests? Visitors? These types of files contain incredibly personal medical information that nobody would want out in public," Ford said. A nationwide problem A congressional committee last fall reported hundreds of security breaches involving 19 federal agencies.
The House Government Reform Committee said the vast majority involved physical thefts or unauthorized use of data by employees.
In May 2006, a Veterans Affairs computer containing personal information on 26.5 million veterans and active employees was stolen from a VA employee's home.
"Few of these incidents have been reported publicly," the report states. "Despite the volume of sensitive information held by agencies, there is no requirement that the public be notified if their sensitive personal information is compromised."
In Milwaukee this is the second time in four years that key medical evidence has been lost after being submitted by disabled applicants seeking financial help.
The Journal Sentinel reported in 2003 that contractors hired by the Social Security office in Chicago dumped documents from hundreds of ACTIVE disability claims - including 86 from Wisconsin - into the garbage. 'He told her to watch out' According to records released by the Social Security Administration under the Freedom of Information Act:
The woman who lost the files is an eight-year veteran of the Milwaukee Office of Disability Adjudication Review. Her duties include organizing claim files, scheduling hearings, mailing decisions and scheduling experts to testify.
The employee logged out five of the six missing files in January 2006 and one in December 2005.
She told investigators that sometime after August, she fled her home because of domestic violence involving her husband and that she may have forgotten to grab the files from one of the locked drawers when she left. After the files were found to be missing, she told authorities that she went back to her husband's house and asked him if he knew where they were.
"She stated that he told her to watch out and that things could happen to her or her friends at work," records show.
The woman's husband, who has a record for domestic abuse, denied to investigators that he had any Social Security files or that he had made any phone calls related to them.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case, and the inspector general's report concluded that no files had been placed in a downtown Dumpster.
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Posted by Kayda (Member # 10565) on :
Bettyg,
This is outrageous! How would a person go about finding out if they were one of the 7 if no one is notifiying them!
Wasn't there a dotcom that came underfire for this type of thing? Maybe it was a credit card company.
You know the HIPPA laws are so strict and then there is the Soc.Sec. dept. that invites the criminals to steal personal information. This stuff is confidential. I cannot believe no one was diciplined and that hte official statement was files weren't found in a dumpster!
You know, maybe someone with half a brain should make a rule that files cannot leave the office (for the very reason of what just happened here). Do we need a law for this now? Everything seems so corrupt!
Something needs to change!!!!!
Kayda
Posted by 8man12 (Member # 7664) on :
Great article,doesn't suprise me a bit. They need to start giving the people who really need ssdi,there share.And quit giving it to the ones that can still work. Happens every day.
Posted by 8man12 (Member # 7664) on :
Betty, you should do what ido,come on youre a secratary.Just copy and paste it in your wordpad,then you can do loke i do and leave big spaces between paragraphs,which makes for easy reading.You cant expect people with neuro lyme to type perfect broken up paragraphs,for people with neuro lyme who cant read them,think of what you're asking.Your asking someone to do perfect paragraphs,and some of us have lyme encepholopathy so bad we can no longer spell,or remember what we even wanted to type in a sentence.I would break it up in word.
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
8man, as usual; you are NOT reading what was typed.
i asked connie mc to use the tinyurl to shorten the LONG 2-3 LINES WEB SITE ADDRESS!
it was NOT anything to do about paragraphs, etc.
8man, chill it will you; i do NOT appreciate your complaining and attacking me EVERY chance you get.
8 man, do me a favor; when you see a post i initiated or replied to; just SOB, SCROLL ON BY, without leaving your complaining comments on every one i post. thank you.
you keep this up, then i will contact jenifer for her moderator's action! you have been warned publicly.
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