Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2011/07/15/2011-17859/electronic-substitutions-for-form-ssa-538
Timestamp: 2017-08-21 07:48:08
Document Index: 494125015

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2009416', '§\u2009416', '§\u2009416', '§\u2009416', 'art 416', '§\u2009416']

Federal Register :: Electronic Substitutions for Form SSA-538
A Rule by the Social Security Administration on 07/15/2011
76 FR 41685
41685-41687 (3 pages)
2011-17859
What revision are we making?
Why are we making this revision?
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2011-17859 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2011-17859
These rules are effective on July 15, 2011. Comment Date: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive them no later than September 13, 2011.
You may submit comments by any one of three methods—Internet, fax, mail. Do not submit the same comments multiple times or by more than one method. Regardless of which method you choose, please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-2009-0027 so that we may associate your comments with the correct regulation.
Internet: We strongly recommend that you submit your comments via the Internet. Please visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function to find docket number SSA-2009-0027. The system will issue a tracking number to confirm your submission. You will not be able to view your comment immediately because we must post each comment manually. It may take up to a week for your comment to be viewable.
Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830.Start Printed Page 41686
Mail: Address your comments to the Office of Regulations, Social Security Administration, 107 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401.
We are revising paragraph (g) in § 416.924 of our regulations. This paragraph explains how adjudicators at each level of our administrative review process must explain their findings about whether a child is disabled or continues to be disabled under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. As currently drafted, that paragraph requires us to complete a standard Form SSA-538, Childhood Disability Evaluation Form, when we make an initial or reconsideration determination. The form outlines the steps of the sequential evaluation process for children under SSI, and we use it to explain our findings.
We are removing the requirement that we complete a specific form, the SSA-538. Instead, we are revising § 416.924(g) to provide that adjudicators at the initial and reconsideration levels will indicate their findings “in writing in a manner that we prescribe.”
We are making this revision because we process some of our cases electronically, and we plan eventually to process all of our cases electronically. The State agencies that are already processing cases electronically use a web-based tool we developed to indicate their findings. The web-based tool does not include an exact copy of our paper Form SSA-538,[1] although it includes all of the major elements of the SSA-538 at appropriate points as the program leads adjudicators (including State agency medical and psychological consultants) through the decisionmaking process in SSI childhood cases. Both the SSA-538 and the web-based tool include choices of possible case dispositions and space in which to explain the disposition. When a functional assessment is required, both the SSA-538 and the web-based tool provide: (1) Space for explaining the assessment of the child's limitation in each of the six functional domains (§ 416.926a(b)(1)); (2) choices for indicating the severity of the limitation of any affected domains; and (3) selections for whether a child's impairment or combination of impairments functionally equals the listings. They also require the State agency medical or psychological consultant with overall responsibility for the findings to affirm that:
He or she considered essential policy factors and evidence,[2] and
The determination is accurate and complete.
The tool also requires affirmations from any other medical or psychological consultant(s) who provided input for the findings.
Since we do not yet use electronic programs to process cases in all State agencies, we are not eliminating the Form SSA-538, only removing reference to it from § 416.924(g). We are revising the paragraph only to provide us with the flexibility we need to use electronic programs in making disability determinations for children under SSI.
We follow the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) rulemaking procedures specified in 5 U.S.C. 553 when we develop regulations. Social Security Act, section 702(a)(5). The APA provides exceptions to its notice and public comment procedures when an agency finds that there is good cause for dispensing with such procedures because they are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.
We find that there is good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) for dispensing with notice and public comment procedures because notice and public comment are unnecessary. As we indicated above, the only change we are making in these rules is to remove our requirement to use a specific paper form, which will allow State agency adjudicators to show, explain, and affirm their findings in other ways. We are not making any substantive changes to the information they must provide or to our signature requirements. As we explained in more detail earlier in this preamble, the web-based tool includes all of the essential elements of the SSA-538; it simply does not include an electronic version of a “Form SSA-538” or contain web pages that look exactly like the paper form.
For the same reason, we also find good cause for dispensing with the 30-day delay in the effective date of a final rule under 5 U.S.C. 553(d). The change represents merely another option for recording and affirming our findings and does not change the substance of what we require adjudicators to record. Therefore, we find that it is unnecessary to delay the effective date of these rules.
We certify that this final rule does not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities because it affects only persons or States. Thus, a regulatory flexibility analysis as provided in the Regulatory Flexibility Act, as amended, is not required.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Program No. 96.006, Supplemental Security Income.)
For the reasons set out in the preamble, we amend title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations, chapter III, part 416, subpart I as follows:
Start Part Start Printed Page 41687
Authority: Secs. 221(m), 702(a) (5), 1611, 1614, 1619, 1631(a), (c), (d)(1), and (p), and 1633 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421(m), 902(a)(5), 1382, 1382c, 1382h, 1383(a), (c), (d)(1), and (p), and 1383b); secs. 4(c) and 5, 6(c)-(e), 14(a), and 15, Pub. L. 98-460, 98 Stat. 1794, 1801, 1802, and 1808 (42 U.S.C. 421 note, 423 note, and 1382h note).
2. Amend § 416.924 by revising paragraph (g) to read as follows:
1. In some cases, adjudicators still complete the paper Form SSA-538 and include a scanned copy of the form in the electronic case record. We plan eventually to end this practice and to use only the electronic tool.
2. We list the same factors in the web-based tool that we list on form SSA-538.
[FR Doc. 2011-17859 Filed 7-14-11; 8:45 am]