ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603190030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
Seeking to rein in the costs of a fast-growing entitlement program, the Social Security Administration plans to review the cases of more than 1.4 million Americans receiving disability benefits to determine who should be dropped from the program, officials said Saturday.
To carry out the task, the agency will seek a special $320 million appropriation from Congress that would allow it to review 700,000 disability cases each year for the next two years. The proposal, to be announced by the agency Monday, will be included in the details of President Clinton's 1997 budget, which is to be unveiled this week.
Social Security officials expect the review to produce a ``cessation rate'' of 14 percent - meaning an estimated 196,000 recipients would be declared ineligible for benefits. Currently, 4 million people receive an average of $682 a month under the disability program.
Essentially, the review will examine whether a beneficiary's medical condition has improved enough to permit a return to work.
Although the agency already conducts some eligibility reviews, the extra funds would allow it to double the rate. Officials estimate that they will save about $3 for every $1 spent on the review process.
The plan is almost certain to be controversial, however.
A similar large-scale review by the Reagan administration in the 1980s resulted in the review of more than 1.4 million cases. Although about 40 percent of beneficiaries were dropped from the rolls, nearly half of those were reinstated through appeals.
That review process produced such a furor that Congress declared a moratorium, and in 1984 adopted a new policy requiring evidence that a beneficiary's medical condition had improved before benefits could be taken away.
On Saturday, officials sought to reassure beneficiaries fearful of arbitrarily being dropped from the rolls.
``This won't be like the 1980s under President Reagan, when there were some real horror stories about people losing benefits,'' said one official who requested anonymity. ``Payments will continue while the case is under review and even after someone is declared ineligible, until a final appeal before an administrative law judge.''
In carrying out the reviews, the agency will examine medical records to determine whether a person's health has improved. If the beneficiary has not been seen by a doctor recently, the government will pay for a physical exam.
People considered permanently and totally disabled will be excluded from the process.
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