Report

Improving the Social Security Disability Decision Process

Released:: February 13, 2007
Type:: Consensus Report
Topic(s):: Health Services, Coverage, and Access, Select Populations and Health Disparities
Board(s):: Medical Follow-Up Agency

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a time-saving screening tool called the Listing of Impairments (Listings) to identify individuals who meet the Social Security definition of disability However, SSA is concerned with a substantial drop in the percentage of claims granted disability benefits based on the Listings over the past 25 years.

At the request of the SSA, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee which issued the report, Improving the Social Security Disability Decision Process, in 2007. The report addressed the medical aspects of disability determination and recommended improvements. The committee recommended the SSA:

Investigate the reliability and validity of the Listings as a tool for identifying the truly disabled;
Incorporate condition-specific functional assessment tools in the Listings that demonstrate a strong
correlation with work disability;
Strengthen the process for revising and updating the Listings;
Expand medical and functional expertise at the staff level; and,
Establish an external advisory committee system.

The committee concluded that a better mechanism than the Listings does not exist at this time, although it recommends that SSA monitor and support promising alternative approaches to disability assessment.