Requiring use of electronic services by certain claimant representatives. Final rules

We are revising our rules to require that claimant representatives use our electronic services as they become available on matters for which the representatives request direct fee payment. In the future, we will publish a notice in the Federal Register when we require representatives who request direct fee payment on a matter to use our available electronic services. We are also adding the requirement to use our available electronic services on matters for which the representative requests direct fee payment as an affirmative duty in our representative conduct rules. These revisions reflect the increased use of technology in representatives' business practices. We expect that the use of electronic services will improve our efficiency by allowing us to manage our workloads more effectively. These rules do not require claimants to use our available electronic services directly; they only require their representatives to use the services on matters for which the representatives request direct fee payment.     

Amendments to procedures for certain determinations and decisions. Final rules

We are revising the procedures for how claimants who receive fully favorable revised determinations based on prehearing case reviews or fully favorable attorney advisor decisions may seek further review. We are also revising our procedure to provide that we will notify claimants who receive partially favorable determinations based on prehearing case reviews that an administrative law judge (ALJ) will still hold a hearing unless all parties to the hearing tell us in writing that we should dismiss the hearing request. These changes will simplify our administrative review process and free up scarce administrative resources that we can better use to reduce the hearings-level case backlog.     

Eliminating the Decision Review Board. Final rules

We are eliminating the Decision Review Board (DRB) portions of part 405 of our rules, which we currently use as the final step in our administrative review process for adjudicating initial disability claims in our Boston region. As of the effective date of this regulation, we will replace the DRB step with review by the Appeals Council. The Appeals Council will follow most of the rules in parts 404 and 416 that we use in the rest of the country to adjudicate disability claims at the Appeals Council level, with some differences needed to accommodate the rules that govern administrative law judge (ALJ) hearings in the Boston region. We will also authorize attorney advisors in the Boston region to conduct certain prehearing proceedings and make fully favorable decisions as they do in the rest of the country. We are making these changes to improve service to claimants and to increase consistency in our program rules.     

Clarification of rules involving residual functional capacity assessments; clarification of use of vocational experts and other sources at step 4 of the sequential evaluation process; incorporation of "special profile" into regulations. Final rules

For purposes of this document, "we," "our," and "SSA" refer to the Social Security Administration and State agencies that make disability determinations for the Social Security Administration. "You" and "your" refer to individuals who claim benefits from the Social Security Administration based on "disability." In this final rule we clarify our rules about the responsibility that you have to provide evidence and the responsibility that we have to develop evidence in connection with your claim of disability. This includes our rules about when we assess your residual functional capacity (RFC) and how we use this RFC assessment when we decide whether you can do your past relevant work or other work. These clarifications address issues of responsibility raised by some courts in recent cases; clarify that we may use vocational experts (VEs), vocational specialists (VSs), or other resources to obtain evidence we need to help us determine whether your impairment(s) prevents you from doing your past relevant work; add a special provision to our rules stating that, if you are at least 55 years old, and specific other circumstances are present, we will find that you are disabled; and make a number of minor editorial changes to clarify and update the language of our rules, and to use simpler language in keeping with our goal of using plain language in our regulations.     

Revised medical criteria for evaluating mental disorders and traumatic brain injury. Social Security Administration. Final rules

These rules revise our regulations for evaluating mental impairments. They also change some of the provisions of our Listing of Impairments (the Listings) that we use to evaluate mental disorders in adults. We also are adding guidance to the adult neurological listings regarding the evaluation of traumatic brain injury. In addition, the rules make technical changes to the adult digestive listings and the childhood mental disorders listings. We expect that these rules will clarify the intent and purpose of the listings for evaluating mental disorders, and will simplify our adjudication of claims involving mental impairments. These rules also recognize the sometimes unpredictable course of traumatic brain injury, and will improve our adjudication of claims involving traumatic brain injuries.     

Evidentiary requirements for making findings about medical equivalence. Final rules

We are revising our regulations that pertain to the processing of claims for disability benefits under title II and title XVI of the Social Security Act (the Act). These revisions make the language in the rules we use under title II of the Act for making findings about medical equivalence consistent with the language in the rules that we use under title XVI of the Act. These revisions also clarify our rules about the evidence we use when we make findings about medical equivalence for adults and children. We are also updating and clarifying our rules that explain the Listing of Impairments (the listings) and how your impairment(s) can meet a listing.     

Privacy and disclosure of official records and information. Final rules

These final rules revise our privacy and disclosure rules to clarify certain provisions and to provide expanded regulatory support for new and existing responsibilities and functions. These changes in the regulations will increase Agency efficiency and ensure consistency in the implementation of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) policies and responsibilities under the Privacy Act and the Social Security Act.     

Exemption of work activity as a basis for a continuing disability review. Final rules

We are publishing these final rules to amend our regulations to carry out section 221(m) of the Social Security Act (the Act). Section 221(m) affects our rules for when we will conduct a continuing disability review if you work and receive benefits under title II of the Act based on disability. (We interpret this section to include you if you receive both title II disability benefits and title XVI (Supplemental Security Income (SSI)) payments based on disability.) It also affects our rules on how we evaluate work activity when we decide if you have engaged in substantial gainful activity for purposes of determining whether your disability has ended. In addition, section 221(m) of the Act affects certain other standards we use when we determine whether your disability continues or ends. We are also amending our regulations concerning how we determine whether your disability continues or ends. These revisions will codify our existing operating instructions for how we consider certain work at the last two steps of our continuing disability review process. We are also revising our disability regulations to incorporate some rules which are contained in another part of our regulations and which apply if you are using a ticket under the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency program (the Ticket to Work program). In addition, we are amending our regulations to eliminate the secondary substantial gainful activity amount that we currently use to evaluate work you did as an employee before January 2001.     

Protecting the public and our employees in our hearing process. Final rule

We are clarifying our regulations to ensure the safety of the public and our employees in our hearing process. Due to increasing reports of threats to our hearing office employees, we are taking steps to explicitly increase the level of protection we provide to our staff and to the public during the hearing process. We expect these changes to result in a safer work environment for our employees, while at the same time ensuring that our claimants continue to receive a full and fair hearing on their claims for benefits.     

Representative payment policies and administrative procedure for imposing penalties for false or misleading statements or withholding of information. Final rules

We are amending our regulations on representative payment and on the administrative procedure for imposing penalties for false or misleading statements or withholding of information to reflect and implement certain provisions of the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (SSPA). The SSPA amends representative payment policies by providing additional safeguards for Social Security, Special Veterans and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries served by representative payees. These changes include additional disqualifying factors for representative payee applicants, additional requirements for non-governmental fee-for-service payees, authority to redirect delivery of benefit payments when a representative payee fails to provide required accountings, and authority to treat misused benefits as an overpayment to the representative payee. In addition, we are amending our rules to explain financial requirements for representative payees, and we have made minor clarifying plain language changes. The SSPA also allows us to impose a penalty on any person who knowingly withholds information that is material for use in determining any right to, or the amount of, monthly benefits under titles II or XVI. The penalty is nonpayment for a specified number of months of benefits under title II that would otherwise be payable and ineligibility for the same period of time for payments under title XVI (including State supplementary payments).     

Supplemental Security Income for the aged, blind, and disabled; eligibility; amount of benefits; residence and citizenship. Social Security Administration. Final rules

We are revising and reorganizing our general rules on eligibility (Subpart B) under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. These rules describe who may get SSI benefits, how long a person's eligibility lasts, and the reasons why a person who would otherwise be eligible for SSI benefits might not get them. We have also established a new Subpart P in which we state our rules on residence and citizenship. We have determined that these regulations do not meet the criteria for a major regulation specified in Executive Order 12291.     

Technical revisions to medical criteria for determinations of disability. Final rules

These final rules make a number of technical revisions to the Listing of Impairments (the listings). We use the listings when you claim benefits based on disability under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (the Act). We are making these revisions to reflect advances in medical knowledge, treatment and terminology, to clarify certain criteria in the listings, to remove listings that we rarely use, and to add new listings consistent with current medical practice. We are making these individual technical revisions in order to improve our medical listings and make them easier to understand and use.     

Voting rules in insolvency law: a simple-game theoretic approach

A chief characteristic of modern insolvency law in Canada, Germany, the UK, and the US is the provision for ‘workouts’ or ‘schemes of arrangement’ by which insolvent companies can attempt to rehabilitate the business. If reorganization is chosen, the debtor has to devise a plan of action which will be voted upon by claimants. The voting rules, however, differ in each jurisdiction to a greater or lesser extent and as yet have not been analyzed in any rigorous manner. This paper provides an approach based upon the theory of simple games to analyze the rules in terms of the ease which each of these regimes can pass (or hinder) plans and how these rules distribute value among claimants. We pay particular attention to the role of classification and the effect of coalition formation.     

Blood Donor Locator Service--Social Security Administration. Final rules

We are issuing these final regulations to govern the Blood Donor Locator Service, which we will establish and conduct, as required by section 8008 of the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-647). Under these regulations, we will furnish to participating States at their request the last known personal mailing address (residence or post office box) of blood donors whose blood donation shows that they are or may be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, if the State or an authorized blood donation facility has been unable to locate the donors. If our records or those of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contain an adequate personal mailing address for the donor, we will provide it to the State so that the State or the blood donation facility can inform the donor that he or she may need medical care and treatment.     

Standards of compliance for abortion-related services in family planning services projects. Office of Population Affairs, OPHS, DHHS. Final rules

The rules issues below revise the regulations that apply to grantees under the federal family planning program by readopting the regulations, with one revision, that applied to the program prior to February 2, 1988. Several technical changes to the regulation are also made to remove and/or update obsolete regulatory references. The effect of the revisions made by the rules below is to revoke the compliance standards, promulgated in 1988 and popularly known as the "Gag Rule," that restricted family planning grantees from providing abortion-related information in their grant-funded projects.     

Recognition of organizations and accreditation of representatives, attorneys, and agents--VA. Proposed rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to revise existing procedures and requirements regarding recognition of service organizations and accreditation of their representatives and agents, attorneys, and individuals seeking to represent claimants for benefits administered by VA. These amendments are necessary to improve clarity and to enhance VA's ability to assure high quality representation of claimants.     

Disability determinations by state agency disability examiners. Final rules

We are revising our rules on a temporary basis to permit State agency disability examiners to make fully favorable determinations in certain claims for disability benefits under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (Act) without the approval of a State agency medical or psychological consultant. These changes apply only to claims we consider under our rules for quick disability determinations (QDD) or under our compassionate allowance initiative.     

Elimination of sanctions for refusal of vocational rehabilitation services without good cause. Final rule

We are amending our regulations to remove provisions relating to the imposition of benefit sanctions on account of a beneficiary's refusal of rehabilitation services. We are making these changes to reflect the repeal of sections 222(b) and 1615(c) of the Social Security Act (the Act). Prior to their repeal, these sections of the Act authorized the Commissioner of Social Security to impose sanctions against the benefits of a disabled or blind beneficiary who refused, without good cause, to accept rehabilitation services made available by a State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 repealed these sections of the Act, effective January 1, 2001. We are amending our regulations by removing rules and related provisions that are obsolete as a result of the repeal of these sections of the Act to conform our regulations to the changes in the statute.