Crackdown At Social Security Disability Program Upsets Doctors
The Wall Street Journal: Doctor Revolt Shakes Disability Program
Earlier this year, senior managers at the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, frustrated by a growing backlog of applications for federal disability benefits, called meetings with 140 of the agency's doctors. The message was blunt: The number of people seeking benefits had soared. Doctors had to work faster to move cases. Instead of earning $90 an hour, as they had previously, they would receive about $80 per case—a pay cut for many cases which can take 60 to 90 minutes to review—unless the doctors worked faster. ... Some doctors ... quit following the changes. Others were fired. In all, 45 of the 140 left within months, the agency said (Paletta, 11/22).