Quick Disability Determinations (QDD)

Objective

We are committed to providing benefits quickly to claimants whose medical conditions are so serious that they clearly meet our disability standards. Our two fast-track processes, Quick Disability Determinations (QDD) and Compassionate Allowances (CAL), use technology to identify claimants with the most severe disabilities and allow us to expedite our decisions on those cases while maintaining accuracy. These initiatives have been two of our greatest successes in recent years. We can approve some cases in a matter of days instead of months.

The QDD process uses a computer-based predictive model to screen initial applications to identify cases where a favorable disability determination is highly likely and medical evidence is readily available. By identifying QDD claims early in the process, we can prioritize this workload and expedite case processing.

Status

We have used QDD nationally since February 2008. We continue to refine the QDD predictive model to reflect the characteristics of the recent applicant population and optimize its ability to identify strong candidates for expedited processing.