Social Security Administration: Major Changes in SSA's Business Processes
Are Imperative (Testimony, 04/14/94, GAO/T-AIMD-94-106).

The Social Security Administration's (SSA) current disability
determination process is extremely stressed, burdened with increasing
workloads and enormous backlogs.  SSA has turned to automation to
improve operations, but these efforts have had only a minimal impact
because they focused on automating existing processes that are
inefficient.  SSA's April 1994 proposal for redesigning the disability
process is a credible proposal that would make the basic changes needed
to realistically cope with disability determination workloads.  The
proposal, which combines top management leadership with the necessary
staff and money, documents the existing disability determination
problems and recommends a solution to dramatically change the process.
As with any major reform, however, many implementation issues still need
to be addressed, including new staffing and training demands, developing
necessary automation requirements, and confronting the entrenched
cultural barriers to changes.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-AIMD-94-106
     TITLE:  Social Security Administration: Major Changes in SSA's 
             Business Processes Are Imperative
      DATE:  04/14/94
   SUBJECT:  Social security benefits
             Disability benefits
             Eligibility determinations
             Federal social security programs
             Cost effectiveness analysis
             Management information systems
             Claims processing
             Systems architecture
             Human resources training
IDENTIFIER:  SSA Disability Determination Program
             SSA Modernized Disability System
             
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