Summary: The Social Security Administration's (SSA) new process for conducting continuing disability reviews relies on computer profiling and beneficiary self-reported data. Beneficiary self-reported data, when used with other key information SSA has, appear reliable for making decisions about when to do full medical examinations of beneficiaries scheduled for reviews. SSA has also taken steps to further assess the reliability of the self-reported data and plans to continually refine its use of computerized beneficiary data to better predict medical improvements and likely benefit terminations. The mailer process appears to be a significant step by SSA to make the review process more efficient and cost-effective, with the process being substantially less costly than SSA's previous review process. SSA needs to send out more mailers and conduct more full medical reviews of program beneficiaries. As SSA gains more experience with the mailer process and improves its ability to accurately identify beneficiaries with the greatest potential for medical improvement, it should do more full medical reviews of those persons to achieve the most effective use of agency resources. By focusing on beneficiaries with the greatest likelihood of improvement, SSA can save taxpayers millions of dollars each year and help preserve the programs' integrity by removing ineligible persons from the rolls.
