2016 Open Government News Archive
Open Government Plan 4.0:
Our First Progress Report
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Since releasing our Open Government Plan 4.0 in September, we continue to address priorities and complete projects that further Open Government principles at SSA. By visiting our Open Government Plan 4.0: Plan Milestones and Completion Report page, you can view progress updates on commitments made in our latest Open Government plan.
This progress report includes updates on:
- our flagship project, the National Disability Forum;
- SSA’s new Analytics Center for Excellence (ACE);
- our progress in identifying and releasing data assets;
- the implementation of a new FOIA Online tool; and
- the use of agency data to generate public facing geospatial maps.
SSA Releases New Map With Service Locations for Tribal Communities
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We are excited to share our newest geospatial map with you, the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) map! The interactive AIAN map allows users to find the local Social Security Video Service Delivery (VSD) sites, Social Security field office, or resident station, closest to their tribe or reservation locations.
During the month of November, we observed Native American Heritage Month to celebrate and recognize the significant contributions of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) community. As an agency, we welcome opportunities to serve the evolving needs and diverse populations of the American public.
This new map is the result of strong collaboration. To provide American Indians with additional information on services provided by our agency, we worked with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to collaborate on data that would enhance the map. The resulting map becomes an important public resource. Now, SSA employees can easily connect AIAN community members to local service locations, and AIAN communities can also access the same information from their homes.
You can check out the AIAN map on our Open Government Map Gallery. If you have ideas on the types of maps you would like published, visit our online communication platform. As more geospatial maps become available, we will add them to the Open Government Map Gallery!
Social Security Releases Agency Financial Report for FY 2016
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With the release of the Fiscal Year 2016 Agency Financial Report (FY 2016 AFR), SSA continues its commitment to transparency and openness.
The AFR provides information enabling the Congress, the President, and the public to assess our stewardship over the financial resources entrusted to us, our performance as an organization, our achievements, and our initiatives and challenges. It also includes information on our program integrity efforts, as well as the Inspector General’s Statement on SSA’s Major Management and Performance Challenges.
The FY 2016 AFR also marks the 30th year that our agency has published audited financial statements and the 23rd year that we have received an unmodified opinion on our financial statements. To learn more about the Fiscal Year 2016 Agency Financial Report, visit www.ssa.gov/finance.
Register to participate in our 5th National Disability Forum
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We are excited to invite you to attend our 5th National Disability Forum to discuss "Exploring Opportunities to Advance the Disability Program through Telehealth and Telemedicine."
What are Telehealth and Telemedicine?
"Telehealth" encompasses a variety of ways to use video and other technology to enhance healthcare and education delivery. "Telemedicine" involves clinical services provided by interactive communication, most commonly a video, between a patient and a practitioner at different locations. We are eager to hear your input on ways that telehealth and telemedicine might be able to help us better serve individuals with disabilities and improve the overall administration of our programs.
When is the National Disability Forum?
The National Disability Forum is scheduled for Thursday, October 27, 2016 from 1:00 p.m.- 3:00 p.m. EDT at the National Education Association located at 1201 16th Street, NW, Washington DC. The forum will also be available via teleconference.
Who are the Speakers?
Dr. David Brennan, Director, Telehealth Initiatives at the MedStar Institute for Innovation will moderate the discussion. Other speakers include:
- Alan H. Dinesman, M.D., Medical Officer, Office of Disability and Medical Assessment, Department of Veterans Affairs
- Kathy Wibberly, Ph.D., Director, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center at University of Virginia Telehealth Resource Center
- Scott Baker, Business Innovations Manager, InSight Telepsychiatry
Additional speakers are being confirmed.
Register Now!
Register now if you plan to attend the forum either in-person or by phone. Please share this invitation with other colleagues who may be interested.
Join the Online Discussion
In addition, we are seeking input for the questions below on telehealth and telemedicine through our IdeaScale engagement site from now through November 18, 2016. IdeaScale is an online tool where you can share your thoughts and ideas with others and respond to their comments.
- How can we use telemedicine and/or telehealth in the development of claims to better serve individuals with a disability?
- How can telehealth help expedite the timely assessment of disability claims at all levels of adjudication?
- How else might we use telemedicine and/or telehealth to improve the administration of our programs and what factors should we consider?
To learn more about the National Disability Forum series, visit us at National Disability Forum.
Just Released: News You Can Use, 2017 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA)
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In case you missed it yesterday, Social Security announced that more than 65 million Americans will receive an increase in their monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits in 2017.
Based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2016, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries will receive a 0.3 percent COLA for 2017.
Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 30, 2016, and Social Security payments sent in January 2017. Information about Medicare changes for 2017, when announced, will be available online. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.
You can also find details about the new COLA online.
APIs and New SSA Data!
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Social Security continues to make more of our data public. Recently, we added three new application programming interfaces to query Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance data, results of the Retirement Applicant Survey and SSI Recipients by State and County 2015.
If you have feedback on our data, or have ideas about what kind of data would be useful to you, please visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process.
See Our New Open Government Plan 4.0!
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On September 13, 2016 we published our fourth Open Government Plan, which represents our continued commitment to increasing transparency, participation and collaboration throughout the agency. In our new Open Government Plan 4.0, you will find progress on past commitments, as well as our strategies moving forward. We developed and published our latest plan based on input from the public, Social Security advocates, and our employees.
We are proud of the progress we have made towards greater openness at Social Security, and believe the projects and other commitments made in our fourth plan will further that progress. Our new plan includes several high-profile agency projects and initiatives that utilize Open Government principles and techniques to further the agency’s mission. They include our flagship initiative, the National Disability Forum, as well as Customer Engagement Tools, Data Exchanges, Analytics Center of Excellence (ACE), Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Programs, and Health Information Technology (IT).
We welcome your feedback on the new plan, so please let us know what you think by emailing us at our Open Government email inbox (open.government@ssa.gov). To learn more about our ongoing Open Government efforts, visit our Open Government webpage at www.ssa.gov/open.
Open Government 3.0 Priorities: Our Latest Progress Report
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We remain committed to making Social Security a more transparent, participatory, and collaborative agency. As we prepare to publish a new Open Government Plan next month, we are proud to display the progress we have made with our previous plan and the commitments within it. By visiting the Open Government Plan 3.0: Plan Milestones and Completion Report page, you can view the progress made on these previous commitments.
This progress report includes updates on:
- Enhancements of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) webpage and FOIA Reading Room
- The most recent awardees of SSA’s Open Government Awards
- New user friendly features added to my Social Security
SSA Launches GeoMaps @ SSA!
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We are excited to announce the launch of geospatial mapping at SSA! Our new initiative, GeoMaps @ SSA, compliments the Open Government and Open Data Initiatives. For several years, we have published a significant amount of data on Data.gov, but we know people learn and receive information in different ways.
Our geospatial maps will provide the public and congressional staff with a deeper understanding of our programs through geographic representations, increasing the transparency of our agency data. At our map gallery, users can view geospatial maps on the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits (OASDI) Beneficiaries and Benefits by State - 2014, and the Help America Vote Verification (HAVV) Usage by State. These maps provide users with the ability to view large amounts of complex data, in a quick, geographic visualization of our data. Users can also download the data, and mesh it with their own data to create other maps, according to their own interests.
This first map lays the groundwork for our establishing a presence on Geoplatform, a federal platform where we collaborate and share our geospatial datasets. SSA is now one of many organizations (e.g. federal, state, local, universities) participating in GeoPlatform, a site managed by the Federal Geographic Data Community, chaired by the Department of the Interior. We encourage you to explore SSA's new mapping features available on our Geospatial Page, and on GeoPlatform.gov. If you have ideas on the types of maps you would like published, visit our online communication platform. As more geospatial maps become available, we will add them to the Open Government Map Gallery!
SSA Releases Updated Data on Language Preferences, Enumeration, and Disability Processing Time
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Social Security has released updated quarterly data on language preferences, enumeration, and disability processing time.
- UPDATED LANGUAGE PREFERENCE DATA
- Quarterly Data for Spoken Language Preferences of Supplemental Security Income Blind and Disabled Applicants
- Quarterly Data for Spoken Language Preferences of Social Security Retirement and Survivor Claimants
- Quarterly Data for Spoken Language Preferences of Social Security Disability Insurance Claimants
- Quarterly Data for Spoken Language Preferences of Supplemental Security Income Aged Applicants
- Quarterly Data for Spoken Language Preferences of End Stage Renal Disease Medicare Claimants
- Quarterly Data for Asian & Pacific Islander Language Preferences among Initial Claims - Social Security Retirement and Survivors
- Quarterly Data for Asian & Pacific Islander Language Preferences among Initial Claims - Social Security Disability Insurance
- Quarterly Data for Asian & Pacific Islander Language Preferences among Initial Claims - Supplemental Security Income (Blind and Disabled)
- Quarterly Data for Asian & Pacific Islander Language Preferences among Initial Claims - Social Supplemental Security Income (Aged)
- Quarterly Data for Asian & Pacific Islander Language Preferences In End Stage Renal Disease Medicare Claims - Social Security Disability Insurance
- OTHER UPDATED DATA
Social Security collects data on our programs and operations, and we strive to make this information as accessible as possible, while safeguarding the personal information entrusted to us.
To access more information on our datasets, please visit our Open Government Data page at www.ssa.gov/open/data. If you have feedback on our data, or have ideas about what kind of data would be useful to you, please visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process at https://ssa.ideascale.com/a/ideas/recent/campaigns/26869.
Social Security Board of Trustees Release 2016 Annual Report
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In case you missed it, the Social Security Board of Trustees just released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2034, the same as projected last year, with 79 percent of benefits payable at that time. The DI Trust Fund will become depleted in 2023, extended from last year’s estimate of 2016, with 89 percent of benefits still payable.
Read the full press release on this topic. You can access the full Trustees Report by visiting: www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2016/index.html.
Social Security Administration’s Open Government Honor Awards Release
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SSA selected two teams as recipients of our 2015 Commissioner’s Open Government Honor Awards. Earlier this month, the Commissioner recognized the awardees through a Virtual Honor Awards ceremony.
We annually present the Open Government Honor Awards to individual employees or groups of employees who demonstrate that they help to internalize the open government principles in the agency’s culture and processes. These principles are: transparency of government operations, programs, and processes; opportunities for participation of citizens in their government; and cross-government and public-private collaboration to accomplish government objectives.
This year the award goes to SSA’s National Disability Forum (NDF) Team, and the Congressional Testimony Search Tool Team. These two teams provide good examples of using open government principles and tools to improve our policies, and further enhance program transparency. Please join us in congratulating this year’s awardees!
#HackForChange by Participating in the National Day of Civic Hacking 2016
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Are you a data geek or hacker with great ideas to improve digital government services? Put those ideas and skills to good use by participating in this year’s National Day of Civic Hacking, which will take place on Saturday, June 4, 2016.
National Day of Civic Hacking is a nationwide day of action that brings together developers, government employees, designers, journalists, data scientists, non-profit employees, user experience (UX) designers, and residents with innovative ideas to improve and unite their communities through the power of technological collaboration. Some of the featured hacking challenges include, improving ways to apply for food stamps, affordable housing, and business licenses; combating the Zika Virus and other future health threats; and leveraging foreign aid data to inform and improve American diplomacy efforts.
For more information on the National Day of Civic Hacking, including a search tool to locate a hacking event close to you, visit: www.codeforamerica.org/national-day-of-civic-hacking. Spread the word about these events across the country by posting on Twitter using the hashtag #HackForChange.
Newly Updated Data on Requests for Telephone Interpreter Services (TIS) in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Language
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Now in! On May 3, 2016, the Office of Open Government released updated data on Telephone Interpreter Services (TIS) in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Language. This dataset contains quarterly national call volume information on requests for interpreter services for over 55 API languages for Social Security Administration services. We are dedicated to providing the best customer service we possibly can by expanding our ability to reach all AAPI individuals that need to be served in their native tongue.
Social Security collects data on our programs and operations, and we strive to make this information as accessible as possible, while safeguarding the personal information entrusted to us. To access more of our datasets, please visit our Open Government Data page.
If you have feedback on our data, or have ideas about what kind of data would be useful to you, please visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process at https://ssa.ideascale.com/a/ideas/recent/campaigns/26869.
Just Released! New SSA Data on Disability Determinations and Reviews
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With the release of these three new datasets on disability determinations and reviews, SSA emphasizes our commitment to the accuracy and effectiveness of our disability decision-making process.
New Data
One aspect of our efforts to effectively detect, deter, and mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse in our programs, is to work with state Disability Determination Services (DDS) to conduct regular Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs).
- Periodic Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) Processed – This dataset contains information on the total number of CDRs we conduct in a year. We use CDRs to ensure that only those beneficiaries who remain disabled continue to receive monthly benefits. This set includes processed CDR data for federal Fiscal Years 2013 on.
We also conduct regular reviews of past disability determinations to ensure accuracy in our decision-making process. This data can be found below.
- Targeted Denial Review – This dataset contains information on the results of the review of denied disability claims adjudicated by the state Disability Determination Services (DDS). It includes annual national level data for federal Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014.
- Preeffectuation Review of Disability Determinations – This dataset contains information on our reviews of Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income, and concurrent Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability favorable initial and reconsideration determinations made by the state DDS to identify allowances with a higher probability of containing substantive errors. This set includes PER data for federal Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013.
The aforementioned datasets are readily available for download, and can be found at www.ssa.gov/open/data and data.gov.
If you have feedback on our data, or have ideas about what kind of data would be useful to you, please visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process at https://ssa.ideascale.com/a/ideas/recent/campaigns/26869.
Open Government Plan 4.0 Outline Released - Let Us Know What You Think
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We just completed our draft outline of our Open Government plan and want to share it with you! Please review our draft outline, and let us know at our Open Government Plan 4.0 engagement any ideas you have to improve transparency, participation, and collaboration at our agency that we should consider in the plan. Please visit our Open Government Plan 4.0 Customer Feedback Process and share your feedback today.
We are committed to including you in every stage of our planning for this plan, and encourage you to continue monitoring our page for updated information about our Open Government Plan!
SSA Celebrates Sunshine Week
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It’s Sunshine Week! This week (March 13-March 19) people across the country will be celebrating Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide initiative to promote Open Government and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A more transparent and open government enlightens and empowers all citizens to play an active role in keeping their government accountable, honest, and efficient.
Social Security remains committed to the principles of open government. Thanks to your help, we have made significant progress in furthering the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration at our agency.
Our progress and accomplishments include:
- Continued improvement of the System of Records Notices section of our FOIA website, which now contains a notice of each system of records, related appendices that we maintain, and the Federal Register publication for each system of records.
- Identifying and releasing more public data assets. Our inventory of public data assets is approaching 900, and that number continues to grow! View more of our data at www.ssa.gov/open/data.
- Using the crowdsourcing tool IdeaScale to engage data users on how they plan to use our public data. We encourage you to visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process to share your ideas.
In June of this year, we will publish the agency’s 4th Open Government Plan, highlighting SSA’s sustained efforts to improve openness and transparency in the next two years. We want to hear from you as we put this new plan together. Visit our Open Government Plan 4.0 Feedback Process to share your ideas about how SSA can continue and enhance its commitment to Open Government.
Happy Sunshine Week!
Help Us Create Our Next Open Government Plan
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We are preparing to publish our fourth Open Government Plan this June, and want to hear from you! In our last plan, published in 2014, we laid out our commitments and milestones to enhance the public’s access to our information, and increase public participation and collaboration to improve our programs and services.
This month, we are kicking off our Open Government Plan 4.0 Feedback Process to help us create our next plan. Do you have any suggestions for making our data more transparent? Do you have any bold and innovative ideas for using open government techniques and principles to help improve our services? Do you know of other federal agencies we should collaborate with, or any new initiatives we should consider?
We encourage you to share your ideas on how we can improve our transparency, participation, and collaboration through our Open Government Plan 4.0 Feedback Process. Once there, you can review our last Open Government Plan and participate in the conversation! The world is full of big ideas. Is the next one from you?
Newly Updated Data on Social Security Administration’s
Disability Determination Services (DDS) Accuracy Rates!
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Now in! We just released fiscal year 2015 data on our Disability Determination Services Accuracy rates. This dataset contains samples of initial disability claims prior to a final determination in order to assess the accuracy component of DDS performance.
Social Security collects data on our programs and operations, and we strive to make this information as accessible as possible, while safeguarding the personal information entrusted to us. To access more of our datasets, please visit our Open Government Data page at www.ssa.gov/open/data.
If you have feedback on our data, or have ideas about what kind of data would be useful to you, please visit our Open Data Customer Feedback Process at https://ssa.ideascale.com/a/ideas/recent/campaigns/26869.
View Current Open Government News
Other SSA News and Updates
Open Government
The Social Security Administration is committed to creating an open and transparent government through the following initiatives: