Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Request and Comment Request

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April 23, 2024

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 79 (Tuesday, April 23, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 23, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30428-30433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-08565]

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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

[Docket No: SSA-2024-0011]

Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Request and
Comment Request

The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of
information collection packages requiring clearance by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with Public Law 104-13, the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, effective October 1, 1995. This notice
includes revisions of OMB-approved information collections, and one new
collection for OMB-approval.
SSA is soliciting comments on the accuracy of the agency's burden
estimate; the need for the information; its practical utility; ways to
enhance its quality, utility, and clarity; and ways to minimize burden
on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology. Mail, email, or fax your
comments and recommendations on the information collection(s) to the
OMB Desk Officer and SSA Reports Clearance Officer at the following
addresses or fax numbers.

(OMB) Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for SSA, Fax:
202-395-6974
(SSA) Social Security Administration, OLCA, Attn: Reports Clearance
Director, Mail Stop 3253 Altmeyer, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD
21235, Fax: 833-410-1631, Email address: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#612e334f3304110e1315124f220d040013000f0204211212004f060e17"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="fbb4a9d5a99e8b94898f88d5b8979e9a899a95989ebb88889ad59c948d">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>

Or you may submit your comments online through <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAmain">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAmain</a> by clicking on Currently under
Review--Open for Public Comments and choosing to click on one of SSA's
published items. Please reference Docket ID Number [SSA-2024-0011] in
your submitted response.

[[Page 30429]]

I. The information collection below is pending at SSA. SSA will
submit it to OMB within 60 days from the date of this notice. To be
sure we consider your comments, we must receive them no later than June
24, 2024. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection instruments
by writing to the above email address.
1. Partnership Questionnaire--20 CFR 404.1080-404.1082--0960-0025.
SSA considers partnership income in determining entitlement to Social
Security benefits. SSA uses information from Form SSA-7104 to determine
several aspects of eligibility for benefits, including the accuracy of
reported partnership earnings; the veracity of a retirement; and lag
earnings where SSA needs this information to determine the status of
the insured. The respondents are applicants for, and recipients of,
Title II Social Security benefits who are reporting partnership
earnings.
Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information
collection.

2. Medical Source Statement of Ability To Do Work Related
Activities (Physical and Mental)--20 CFR 404.1512-404.1513, 416.912-
416.913, 404.1517, and 416.917--0960-0662. When a claimant appeals a
denied disability claim, SSA may ask the claimant to have a
consultative examination at the agency's expense, if the claimant's
medical sources cannot, or will not, give the agency sufficient
evidence to determine whether the claimant has a disability. The
medical providers who perform these consultative examinations provide a
statement about the claimant's state of disability. Specifically, these
medical source statements determine the work-related capabilities of
these claimants. SSA collects the medical data on the HA-1151 and HA-
1152 to assess the work-related physical and mental capabilities of
claimants who appeal SSA's previous determination on their issue of
disability. The respondents are medical sources who provide reports
based either on existing medical evidence or on consultative
examinations.
Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information
collection.

II. SSA submitted the information collections below to OMB for
clearance. Your comments regarding these information collections would
be most useful if OMB and SSA receive them 30 days from the date of
this publication. To be sure we consider your comments, we must receive
them no later than May 23, 2024. Individuals can obtain copies of these
OMB clearance packages by writing to the <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7d322f532f180d120f090e533e11181c0f1c131e183d0e0e1c531a120b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="470815691522372835333469042b222635262924220734342669202831">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>.
1. Representative Availability Portal for Social Security
Administration Hearings--20 CFR 404.929, 404.933, 404.1740, 416.1429,
416.1433, 416.1540, 418.1350, 422.203--0960-NEW. As part of the appeals
process, claimants can request a hearing with an Administrative Law
Judge (ALJ). Approximately 80 percent of claimants have appointed
representatives at the hearing level. When the Social Security
Administration (SSA) schedules hearings before an ALJ, it usually
considers the availability of appointed representatives, if applicable.
Appointed representatives may be members of large firms, appearing at
hearings nationwide, or may be solo practitioners servicing a specific
geographic location or hearing office. In both situations, it is
typical for appointed representatives to represent more than one
claimant at any given moment; some represent hundreds of claimants at
once.
Historically, the process of seeking, tracking, and considering
representative availability has been a manual and time-intensive
activity. In the past, hearing offices sought representative
availability information by contacting each representative
individually. More recently, Office of Hearings Operations' Regional
Offices representatives collected availability information.
Representatives provided Regional Office staff with their hearing
availability via telephone or email. However, the process for gathering
and considering representative availability was not standardized and
varied greatly amongst Regional Offices. The appointed representative
community informed SSA they would appreciate a

[[Page 30430]]

consistent and standardized electronic process to submit their
availability for hearing appearances.
In the Spring of 2023, SSA initiated the Enhanced Representative
Availability Process (ERAP) to provide representatives with a more
standardized and streamlined process to email their availability for
hearings. In the interim, SSA obtained OMB approval to test a new
Representative Availability Portal (Portal) to offer the representative
community a web-based option to submit their monthly availability to
SSA, as per 20 CFR 404.1740(b)(3)(iii) and 416.1540(b)(3)(iii) and in a
manner consistent with ERAP. SSA tested the Portal among 11 appointed
representative practice groups nationwide. We are currently seeking OMB
approval for the national rollout of the Portal, which collects
standardized information regarding appointed representative
availability for the purpose of scheduling hearings.
SSA plans to roll the Portal out to all appointed representatives
registered with the Registration, Appointment and Services for
Representatives (RASR) application, other professional representatives
who regularly conduct hearing business with SSA but are not registered
with RASR, and delegated officials from appointed representative's
Designated Scheduling Groups (DSG). A DSG is a representative-
identified scheduling group which can include one representative, or
multiple representatives. Respondents will need to have a mySocial
Security account to use the Portal and be registered into the Portal by
SSA systems. Respondents who wish to use the Portal, but who are not
registered with RASR, or who do not have a Representative ID, must
provide SSA systems with the necessary data, including name and SSN, to
complete the Portal registration process.
Portal respondents, once registered, are authorized representatives
and delegated officials from appointed representatives' DSG. SSA will
use the Portal to track availability for hearings for the DSG.
Representatives provide hearing availability for the DSG monthly (as
described above), and SSA considers the DSG-provided availability when
scheduling hearings.
SSA will announce the response window for the Portal each month via
a reminder email, approximately ten days prior to the deadline for
Portal submissions. Following the submission deadline, the Portal will
``lock,'' and respondents will not be able to submit availability
through the Portal at that time. However, SSA has some discretion to
approve a request for a late submission or modification and plans to
have the capacity to unlock the Portal, when warranted. Portal response
options will include DSG group, hearing region, availability during the
period of submission, and respondent-preferred case maximums. The
Portal will allow SSA to obtain the information we require to schedule
hearings for attendees.
If the respondents choose not to submit their availability via the
Portal, the option of submitting their availability through email
submission (as is the current practice) will remain. If a
representative elects not to timely submit any availability via the
Portal or email, SSA will schedule their hearings without their input.
We expect use of the Portal will result in receiving consistent
structured data from appointed representatives, which will allow for a
more streamlined and effective hearing scheduling process. The Portal
also meets a longstanding customer-experience request by the
representative community, one of SSA's key stakeholders in the process.
The respondents are appointed representatives, and delegated
officials from appointed representatives' DSGs who need to submit their
availability to SSA for hearings.
Type of Request: Request for a new information collection.

2. Statement of Death by Funeral Director and State Death Match
Collections--20 CFR 404.301, 404.310-404.311, 404.316, 404.330-404.341,
404.350-404.352, 404.371, 404.715, 404.720, and 416.912--0960-0142. The
death of a beneficiary is an event that terminates the individual's
entitlement to Social Security benefits. As regulated, states must
furnish death information to SSA to compare to SSA's payment files. SSA
employs two modalities for ensuring it efficiently receives accurate
information regarding the deaths of SSA-insured workers and
beneficiaries: (1) Form SSA-721, Statement of Death by Funeral
Director; and (2) the Electronic Death Registration (EDR). SSA operates
the State Death Match collections, which includes the EDR process for
electronically reporting death records to SSA. The states furnish death
certificate information to SSA via a manual registration process (the
SSA-721), or via the EDR Registration Process. Both death match
processes are automated electronic transfers between the states and
SSA. This collection, via paper form SSA-721 or the EDR, allows for the
funeral director or funeral home responsible for the individual's
burial or cremation to report the death to SSA. SSA uses this
information for three purposes: (1) to establish proof of death for the
insured worker; (2) to determine if the insured individual was
receiving any pre-death benefits SSA needs to terminate; and (3) to
ascertain which surviving family member is eligible for the lump-sum
death payment or for other death benefits. The respondents for this
information collection are funeral directors who handled death
arrangements for the insured individuals, and the states' bureaus of
vital statistics.
Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information
collection.

[[Page 30431]]

EDR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average
Average cost Estimated theoretical Total annual
Modality of completion Number of Frequency of per record total annual hourly cost opportunity cost
respondents response request burden hours amount (dollars) ***
(cost) (dollars) **
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Death Match--EDR *............................. 54 3,164,477 $2.77 $473,342,469 ** 23.00 *** 72,782,971
States Expected to Become--State Death Match-EDR 1 1,247 3.73 4,651 ** 23.00 *** 28,681
Within the Next 3 Years *...........................
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Totals:.......................................... 55 .............. .............. 473,347,120 .............. *** 72,811,652
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* Please note that both of these data matching processes are electronic, and nearly immediate. Therefore, there is only a cost burden, and no hourly
burden for the respondent to provide this information.
We estimated the frequency of responses by taking the total number of actual records received for calendar year 2023 for each category and dividing by
the number of respondents, per category.
We have 54 States and Jurisdictions currently using EDR. Guam recently showed interest in becoming an EDR site. Estimated sometime mid to late next year
2024.
** We based this figure on the average Records Clerk hourly wages as reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics data (<a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes434199.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes434199.htm</a>).
*** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete this application; rather,
these are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the application. There is no actual charge to
respondents to complete the application.

SSA-721
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Average
Average burden Estimated total theoretical Total annual
Modality of completion Number of Frequency of per response annual burden hourly cost opportunity
respondents response (minutes) (hours) amount cost (dollars)
(dollars) ** ***
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SSA-721........................................... 437,449 1 4 29,163 $27.90 * $813,648 **
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* We based this figure on average funeral home manager's hourly salary in May 2024, as reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics data (<a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes394031.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes394031.htm</a>).
** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete this application; rather,
these are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the application. There is no actual charge to
respondents to complete the application.

3. Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network
(RETAIN)--0960-0821. The SSA and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) are
conducting the Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness
Network (RETAIN) demonstration. The RETAIN demonstration tests the
impact of early intervention strategies that improve stay-at-work/
return-to-work (SAW/RTW) outcomes of individuals who experience work
disability while employed. We define ``Work disability'' as an injury,
illness, or medical condition that has the potential to inhibit or
prevent continued employment or labor force participation. SAW/RTW
programs succeed by returning injured or ill workers to productive work
as soon as medically possible during their recovery process, and by
providing interim part-time or light duty work and accommodations, as
necessary. We loosely modeled the RETAIN Demonstration Projects after
promising programs operating in Washington State, including the Centers
of Occupational Health and Education (COHE), the Early Return to Work
(ERTW), and the Stay at Work programs.
While these programs operate within the state's workers'
compensation system, and are available only to people experiencing
work-related injuries or illnesses, the RETAIN Demonstration Projects
provide opportunities to improve SAW/RTW outcomes for both occupational
and non-occupational injuries and illnesses of people who are employed,
or at a minimum in the labor force, when their injury or illness
occurs.
The primary goals of the RETAIN Demonstration Projects are:
1. To increase employment retention and labor force participation
of individuals who acquire, and/or are at risk of developing, work
disabilities; and
2. To reduce long-term work disability among RETAIN service users,
including the need for Social Security Disability Insurance and
Supplemental Security Income.
The Retain Demonstration aims to validate and expand evidence-based
strategies to accomplish these goals. DOL funds intervention approaches
and programmatic technical assistance, while SSA funds evaluation
support, including technical assistance and the full evaluation for the
demonstration. The demonstration consists of two Phases. The first
involves the implementation and assessment of cooperative awards to
eight states to conduct planning and start-up activities, including the
launch of a small pilot demonstration. During Phase 1, SSA provided
evaluation-related technical assistance and planning, and conducts
evaluability assessments to assess which states' projects would allow
for a rigorous evaluation if continued beyond the pilot phase. SSA
completed Phase 1 on May 16, 2021. DOL selected a subset of states and
continued to Phase 2 full implementation and evaluation on May 17,
2021, which will end in October 2025. During Phase 2, DOL funds the
operations and program technical assistance activities for the
recommended states, and SSA funds the full set of evaluation
activities. The four components of this evaluation, completed during
site visits, interviews with RETAIN service users, surveys of RETAIN
enrollees, and surveys of RETAIN service providers, include:
<bullet> The participation analysis: Using RETAIN service user
interviews and surveys, this analysis provides insights into which
eligible workers choose to participate in the program, in what ways
they participate, and how services received vary with participant
characteristics. Similarly, it will assess the characteristics of, and
if possible, reasons for non-enrollment of non-participants.
<bullet> The process analysis: Using staff interviews and logs,
this analysis produces information about operational features that
affect service provision; perceptions of the intervention design by
service users, providers, administrators, and other stakeholders;
relationships among the partner

[[Page 30432]]

organizations; each program's fidelity to the research design; and
lessons for future programs with similar objectives.
<bullet> The impact analysis: This analysis produces estimates of
the effects of the interventions on primary outcomes, including
employment and Social Security disability applications, and secondary
outcomes, such as health and service usage. SSA identifies evaluation
designs for each state to generate impact estimates, which could
include experimental or non-experimental designs.
<bullet> The cost-benefit analysis: This analysis assesses whether
the benefits of RETAIN justify its costs, conducted from various
perspectives, including participants, state and Federal governments,
SSA, and society as a whole.
The purpose and proposed use of this information collection is to
gather qualitative and quantitative data needed to conduct the
analysis. These activities, include (1) surveys of RETAIN enrollees and
(2) follow-up interviews with RETAIN service users. The qualitative
data collection consists of: (1) semi-structured interviews with
program staff and service users; and (2) staff activity logs. Program
staff interviews focus on staff's perceptions of the successes and
challenges of implementing each states program, while staff activity
logs house information on staff's time to inform the benefit-cost
analysis. Service user interviews inform SSA's understanding of users'
experiences with program services. The quantitative data include SSA's
program records and survey data. The survey data collection consists
of: (1) two rounds of follow-up surveys, focusing on individual-level
outcomes, with enrollees, all of whom who have experienced a disability
onset; and (2) two rounds of surveys with RETAIN providers. Respondents
learn of the RETAIN program data collection efforts through various
outreach methods, including, but not limited to mailings, phone calls,
and from other individuals. SSA is constantly reviewing our outreach
strategies to ensure maximum exposure and accessibility to the
materials. the respondents are staff members selected for staff
interviews and staff activity logs, and RETAIN service users,
enrollees, and providers.
Type of Request: Request for renewal of an information collection.

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Average Average wait
Average burden Estimated theoretical time for Total annual
Modality of completion Number of Frequency of per response total annual hourly cost teleservice opportunity
respondents response (minutes) burden (hours) amount centers cost (dollars)
(dollars) * (minutes) ** ***
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RETAIN 2024 Burden Figures
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Enrollee Survey Round 1 (Respondents)... 1,872 1 20 624 * 31.48 ** 19 *** 38,311
Enrollee Survey Round 1 (Nonrespondents) 468 1 3 23 * 31.48 ** 0 *** 724
Enrollee Survey Round 2 (Respondents)... 4,493 1 26 1,947 * 31.48 ** 19 *** 106,088
Enrollee Survey Round 2 (Nonrespondents) 1,123 1 3 56 * 31.48 ** 0 *** 1,763
Follow-up interviews with service users 20 1 141 47 * 31.48 ** 19 *** 1,668
(Respondents)..........................
Follow-up interviews with service users 30 1 6 3 * 31.48 ** 0 *** 94
(Nonrespondents).......................
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Totals.............................. 8,006 .............. .............. 2,700 .............. .............. *** 148,648
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RETAIN 2025 Burden Figures
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enrollee Survey Round 2 (Respondents)... 1,123 1 26 487 * 31.48 ** 19 *** 26,538
Enrollee Survey Round 2 (Nonrespondents) 281 1 3 14 * 31.48 ** 0 *** 441
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............................. 1,404 .............. .............. 501 .............. .............. *** 26,979
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand Total
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Totals.............................. 9,410 .............. .............. 3,201 .............. .............. *** 175,627
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* We based these figures on average U.S. citizen's hourly salary, as reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics data (<a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm</a>).
** We based this figure on average FY 2023 wait times for teleservice centers (approximately 19 minutes per respondent), based on SSA's current
management information data.
*** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete these tasks; rather, these
are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the tasks. There is no actual charge to respondents to
complete the tasks.

[[Page 30433]]

Dated: April 17, 2024.
Naomi Sipple,
Reports Clearance Officer, Social Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024-08565 Filed 4-22-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P

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