Lankford: Social Security Disability Insurance Crisis Looms
Another looming crisis: Social Security Disability Insurance
By Sen. James Lankford
In May, over a thousand West Virginians and Kentuckians went to their mailbox and found letters telling them their disability checks would soon be cut off.
Why? Because a government watchdog group had reason to believe that yet another lawyer and/or doctor was involved in Social Security fraud.
This case of alleged disability fraud involves accusations of a small group of doctors with a rotating cookie-cutter diagnosis, attorneys who facilitated false forms and administrative law judges who overturned previous decisions with no hearing. It would be shocking except that earlier this year, a doctor and 39 individuals in Puerto Rico were arrested for fraud, accused of nearly the same thing.
The Puerto Rican fraud scheme cost the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program more than $100 million and interrupted benefits for many disabled people. If the charges prove true, the West Virginia-Kentucky case will cost the program even more money and heartache.