The good news: Virtual Screening is a tool developed by Social Security (SSA) to speed up the process. Senior SSA attorneys identify cases that they believe would receive a fully favorable decision if the claimant went to hearing…and grant benefits right away. And there’s no downside – if your case is picked for screening but SSA decides not to pay, you simply proceed to hearing just as you would have.
The not-as-good news: There is no way to initiate Virtual Screening; as attorneys for claimants, we have to wait to be contacted about a particular claimant’s case. But once we know, we can and do immediately prepare a brief, arguing the case and we make sure that all medical information is up-to-date. Some of the time, the SSA attorney contacts us with questions and we’re able to discuss the case with them.
How often does this happen? SSA’s identified goal in 2009-2010 was 14,600 fully favorable cases for the year.
Additional information: Based on our experience to date (Virtual Screening is a relatively new tool so there isn’t a lot of information out there), the majority of the individuals sent to the virtual screening unit are over 50 years of age.