Systems Modernization and the Strategic Plans of the Social Security Administration (1990) / Chapter Skim
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4. Strategies for the Future
4. Strategies for the Future
Pages 43-56
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From page 43... ...
To implement the broad initiatives described in the ASP, the agency intends to produce supporting plans that include a 5-year tactical plan and a 2-year operational plan. Such planning is consistent with private industry, which also distinguishes among its strategic, 1 The agency mission, as stated in the ASP is: To administer equitably, effectively and efficiently a national program of social insurance as prescribed by legislation.
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From page 44... ...
"Maintain the fiscal integrity of the Social Security trust fundsn; 2. "Improve public confidence in Social Security and how its programs are operates; 3.
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From page 45... ...
In the first, although the SSA has a prime obligation to conserve the trust fund by accurately administering benefits, the fact is that even if the legislation were to grant benefits in excess of revenues, the SSA is bound by the law and its responsibility is to determine the recipient and amount of benefit accordingly. In the second, the agency's operating budget is such a small percentage (1.5%)
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From page 46... ...
The existence of FTS 2000 neither negates nor reduces the advisability for the SSA of centralizing agencywide responsibility for requirements, procurement, and overall management of telecommunications. Among the things we noticed in connection with SSA's handling of telecommunications: The SSA generally procures telephone and data communications as independent services, and even sometimes procures telecommunications on a programmatic basis, rather than an overall agency requirement.
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From page 47... ...
The disability program requires a disproportionate share of the agency's administrative staff in relation to the share of clients served. For example, only about 10 percent of the SSA's clients receive disability benefits, but this workload consumes about 32 percent of the administrative outlay from the trust fund.
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From page 48... ...
Most limiting, however, has been the lack of agency initiative in planning for the eventual elimination of paper-based manual operations, which continue to consume a disproportionate fraction of costs, continue to impair productivity increases, and inhibit the smooth integration of newly legislated features. With the rapidly increasing technological advances in optical storage systems and image processing, it is important that the SSA plan for a transition to a paperless environment in the coming decade.
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From page 49... ...
Most of the on-line processes of the SSA currently involve fairly straightforward storage/retrieval processing and the generation of fixed summaries for individual SSA client files. At the district office level, on-line software is already being designed and introduced that performs some routine calculations that are appended to summary reports.
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From page 50... ...
Even with the progress from an all-paper to a paper-based operation supported by automation, the ODO, for example, has virtually no automation and depends on constantly moving huge volumes of paper file folders. The ODO is a challenging opportunity for automation because medical evidence and other information external to the SSA is Contextual (e.g., X-ray films)
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From page 51... ...
Worse, advanced features such as windowing techniques facilitating concurrent access to several client files at the terminal and useroriented menus will be impossible or demand large increases in data communications support. We believe that workstation technology2 can clearly provide a broader range of user support and integration of function.
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From page 52... ...
. Toward the Use of Expert Systems The introduction of expert-system technology promises greater productivity and standardization of processing for areas in which there exists well-specified decision criteria or at least sufficient expertise to identify and define "norms of practice." While there are various opportunities for automating processes via expert-system technology, disability claims processing and adjudication are the major prospective targets because of the present long delays in the process and the existence of standardized rules for large parts of it.
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From page 53... ...
By applying expertsystem technology to make consistent rule-based decisions for disability verification, the verification time should be reduced and the percentage of appeals and decision reversals also should decrease. Laying the Groundwork While potential benefits from automating processes are clear, the need for expert-system versus conventional algorithmic approaches has not been established.
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From page 54... ...
The second and third categories are amenable to application of current knowledge engineering techniques, with increasing degrees of investment in specialist time and knowledge engineering expertise over that needed for the first category. The fourth category will require truly intensive knowledge engineering and should not be undertaken at the present time unless considerable investment in automating the function is deemed desirable.
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From page 55... ...
Promising Advanced Information Technologies The SSA requires an ongoing program of technology assessment and concomitant planning to identify many opportunities that can arise from technology not now in use at SSA. For example, voice recognition, smart cards, optical storage cards, even the esoteric neural networks at some point in the future are all advancing sufficiently rapidity that the SSA shouIcl stay abreast of their capabilities and possible application to the agency's functions.
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From page 56... ...
Neural network technology is not now as well developed as expert systems, but its progress should be monitored. To summarize regarding advanced information technologies, we recommend that: The Social Security Administration study and inventory its technological base with a view toward establishing the relevance and candidacy of promising new technologies to its systems and needs, identify opportunities to exploit them to reduce costs and enhance services, and incorporate the results of such studies and examinations into revised editions of its Agency Strategic Plan.
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