David Camp, NOSSCR CEO

Transitions

Obviously, we’re all working through the consequences of the election. The Presidential transition has produced the early departure of Commissioner O’Malley, who will officially resign November 29th to seek a leadership role with the DNC.

We’re proud of the accomplishments resulting from our close collaboration with Commissioner O’Malley and his team in just 11 months. The day after he resigns, the fee agreement cap will increase to the maximum allowed by statute, followed by annual COLA adjustments thereafter. We’ve announced two dozen other improvements this year—on everything from past relevant work to access to ERE and AARPS expansions. Many more are in the pipeline—sometimes slowed due to policy reviews but more often because antiquated systems must be adjusted. These include the remainder of our “punch list” items NOSSCR asked of Commissioner O’Malley last Christmas—including a version of an “enterprise contact” for more efficient calls placed by representatives to SSA.

NOSSCR isn’t sitting back and watching this transition process. I am in close contact with the transition team, key officials at SSA, and influential Senators. A full Commissioner six-year term is open for a Senate-confirmed nominee in 2025. As you may have been tracking for the last few years, NOSSCR isn’t partisan, and our connections include both Democrats and Republicans. This is a good time to mention the importance of our NOSSCR PAC, which expands our capacity to educate and connect. This transition is unprecedented for the lack of traditional structure. There is a transition team, and many names (including mine) are currently floated for Commissioner. Ultimately, we expect this to be a good example of the need for a President to work with the Senate—a process unlikely to be rushed. Social Security isn’t called the “third rail of politics” because our community is weak. We always protect and enhance the disability program and SSA’s functions, and NOSSCR has extremely strong allies in that work. While it is too early to know—and certainly Martin O’Malley is hard to replace—I’m confident SSA will have a new Commissioner that continues updates to policy, operations, and budget controls.

Next up is an Acting Commissioner announcement. With the Deputy Commissioner position vacant, the ACOSS will be named by President Biden. We’ll let you know immediately.

Medical records

We’re progressing well with our multi-prong attack on the medical records problem—both as to costs and the need to obtain them at all. Our approach to encourage collaboration between SSA and HHS as to existing “record blocking” regulations is temporarily paused during the transition for both practical and political reasons. Many senior staff at both agencies are transitioning out of government, and it’s common for decisions made November-January in a Presidential transition to be reflexively reversed in February.

You may have seen our social media and press release announcements recently, including NOSSCR’s heat map of state laws barring (green) or allowing (red) costs. Behind the scenes, NOSSCR is already working with several state legislatures on state-law improvements.

We’re now partnered in this advocacy with three of the strongest forces on this topic—SSA, Epic, and Microsoft. We agree with Epic’s work toward a “public benefits use case” for “interoperability” and have been collaborating with SSA’s expansion of HIT MER providers from among Epic’s customers. To learn more about the issues and the coming Epic-supported standard called “TEFCA” check here and here.

As always, it is a privilege to serve as your professional association’s CEO. Thank you for your membership.