• user-friendly to the claimant and those who assist them;

• prompt, that is, decisions are made quickly;

• accurate, that is, the correct decision is made the first time;

• efficient; and

• conducted in a work environment satisfying for employees.

The Social Security disability claims process¹ starts at the state disability determination service where most disability decisions are made for SSA at the initial and reconsideration levels. Briefly, the claims process proceeds through a series of four stages or levels: (1) applications for benefits and preliminary screening are made at the SSA district offices; (2) disability determinations are made in state DDS agencies using federal regulations and SSA guidelines and procedures; (3) claimants whose applications are denied can have their claims reconsidered at the DDS level; and (4) if benefits are denied during the reconsideration, the claimant may request a hearing before an ALJ at the SSA. Further appeals options include a request for review of the denial decision by SSA's Appeals Council, and then review in the federal courts.

SSA envisions that the reengineered claims process will make efficient use of technology, eliminate fragmentation and duplication, and promote flexible use of resources. Claimants will be given understandable program information and a range of choices for filing a claim and interacting with SSA. They will deal with one contact point and will have the right to a personal interview at each level of the process. Also, the number of levels in the new claims process prior to Appeals Council review will be consolidated from four to two, and the issues for which appeals will be allowed will be more focused. Finally, if the claim is approved, the initiation of payment will be streamlined. The current and the proposed claims processes are illustrated in Figure 2-1.

Successful reengineering depends on a number of key initiatives of a new claims process. SSA's original plan depended on a large number of initiatives which together were intended to make the reengineered claims process function efficiently. Since then the agency has reassessed many of the reengineering initiatives and developed a revised plan that focuses on eight major areas for priority attention. Four of these initiatives are testing efforts (single decisionmaker, adjudication officer, full process model, and disability claims manager), and four are developmental activities that SSA calls “critical enablers” (systems support, process unification, simplified decision process, and quality assurance) (SSA, 1998b). Thus the redesign of the disability decision process is one, but only one, of the process changes proposed by SSA to achieve reengineering of the disability claims process.