**GAO-09-183R**                      Published: Jan 09, 2009. Publicly Released: Jan 09, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

On December 17, 2008, GAO issued a report concerning our findings on the Social Security Administration's (SSA) collection of medical evidence in the disability determination process. In the course of our review, an issue arose that was outside the scope of our work but is important to how SSA communicates its disability determinations to claimants. During this review, we examined a limited random selection of electronic folders for initial disability determinations for fiscal year 2007. The folders included notices sent to each denied claimant to explain the reasons for the denial of their claim and the evidence used to make the determination. Our findings related to these notices and current SSA policy regarding them is the subject of this report. This report also contains a recommendation that warrants SSA management's consideration.

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## Topics

Worker and Family Assistance

AccountabilityAid for the disabledClaimsClaims processingDisabilitiesDisability insuranceElectronic recordsEligibility determinationsFederal regulationsFormsInformation disclosureInformation managementMedical information systemsMedical recordsPeople with disabilitiesProgram managementRecords managementPolicies and procedures