The Office of the Chief Actuary deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. They provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as "the investigative arm of Congress". GAO helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has the following responsibilities:
- Promotes economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security programs.
- Prevents and detects fraud, waste and abuse in Social Security’s programs and operations.
- Informs Social Security and Congress about problems and deficiencies and recommends corrective action.
Read OIG's
reports,
investigations,
news releases,
stories, and
testimonies.
Also visit OIG's
Facebook,
Twitter and
YouTube pages,
as well as its blog called "Beyond the Numbers."
The Freedom of Information Act creates procedures whereby members of the public may obtain SSA records.
Social Security and Kaiser Permanente Begin Partnership to Speed Up Disability Decisions
Unprecedented Agreement Will Cut Cost, Save Time and Improve Service
Posted: June 27, 2012
The Social Security Administration announced today that Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers, will electronically transmit complete medical records for its patients to the agency with the appropriate consent. Social Security requests about 70,000 patient files from Kaiser Permanente each year so this seamless new system will save time and money for both partners as well as allow Social Security to make faster and more accurate decisions.
Over the last few years, Social Security had entered into similar agreements with several smaller providers to exchange medical records electronically over the Nationwide Health Information Network. Today’s agreement marks the agency’s first move into using health information technology on a large-scale basis.
“I am confident that people will look back at today’s announcement as the most significant improvement in our disability determination process since the program began in 1956. In today’s world it makes no sense for us to chase down paper records on an individual basis,” said Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security. “We are thrilled that Kaiser Permanente is now one of our key agents for change.”
“Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to supporting safe and secure health information exchange for members and our work with Social Security will enable our patients to obtain quicker disability decisions on their benefits,” said Lisa Caplan, Kaiser Permanente’s Senior Vice President and Business Information Officer. “We are delighted to be working with such an innovative agency.”
More information on Social Security’s use of health IT is available at
www.socialsecurity.gov/hit.
We used our idea-sharing tool, "OpenSocialSecurity," to capture your ideas for creating our Open Government Plan. We received many ideas on how we could increase our transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation.
Under certain circumstances, Social Security can provide a speaker to discuss our programs, benefits, and services. We provide speakers free of charge, and they are generally available during business hours only. Please note that we are not able to fulfill all requests.
The Administration is committed to creating an open and transparent government through the following initiatives:
Alan Lane
Associate Commissioner for Open Government
Address:
6401 Security Blvd
West High Rise Rm. 1126
Baltimore, MD 21235
Email: open.government@ssa.gov
