Jennifer Cronenberg, Interim CEO

While I would love to keep talking about the amazing time we had in Salt Lake City forever (and I will—see the multiple later entries in this Forum where we do just that), I wanted to pause my excitement for a moment to talk shop.

Lately SSA has been issuing multiple frequent updates to the POMS and Emergency Messages. Largely these changes have been minor—changes for clarity, updated examples, incorporating known additions (like the new Cardiovascular listings), but some of the changes have been more substantive, and I wanted to highlight just a few of those here.

First, you should know that there are several of us in the advocacy community who check both the POMS Recent Changes and the Emergency Messages daily. We have many email chains discussing these changes and flagging anything worrying. I mention this so that those of you who are busy with your own caseloads can rest a bit easier knowing that we will always highlight any meaningful changes so that you can stay up to date.

Now for some recent changes that are worthy of mention:

GN 02250 TN 83 Waiver Provisions for Title II and Title XVI Overpayments – “The Commissioner has created of a new department within Risk and Quality (R&Q) called Governance and Performance (GAP). We are changing the designated reviewer for high dollar waiver approvals from CDPS/MOS to RQ. RQ will be responsible for reviewing and approving high dollar waiver approvals. Starting October 1, 2026, the high dollar waiver approval amounts that RQ will review and approve will change from $35,000 to $20,000 for Title XVI waiver approvals and from $75,000 to $20,000 for Title II waiver approvals.” Given the lower threshold for cases that require review, it’s worth keeping a closer eye on any of your waiver requests. We would love feedback on any notable changes in the processing time of these waiver requests.

DI 25005.015 Determination of Capacity for Past Work – This transmittal provides improved guidance for how the Disability Determination Services (DDS) considers past “gig work.” The changes to Subsection E “help ensure prompt and consistent evaluation of “gig economy” type work, particularly in situations where earnings were insubstantial and on a task-by-task basis, we simplified instructions on when to rule out certain past self-employment for relevancy purposes.” With an ever-increasing number of our clients who have this “gig” work included in their work histories, this added clarity should be beneficial.

EM-26017 REV 2 Workload Management Expansion – This Emergency Message notes that the nationwide “workload management” system has now been expanded to even more states: Alabama (AL), American Samoa (AS), Arizona (AZ), Arkansas (AR), California (CA), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Hawaii (HI), Kentucky (KY), Louisiana (LA), Mississippi (MS), Nevada (NV), New Jersey (NJ), New Mexico (NM), North Carolina (NC), Ohio (OH), Oklahoma (OK), South Carolina (SC), Tennessee (TN), and Texas (TX). This means that, if you file a new IC in one of these states, you may well find that it is being processed somewhere else entirely. Be sure to check any notices you receive to confirm which local office is processing the case. Please let us know if you see any problematic patterns with this workload management expansion.

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