Social Security Administration June 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

These final rules explain how a claimant may object to appearing at a hearing via video teleconferencing, or to the time and place of a hearing. These final rules adopt, with further clarification regarding our good cause exception, the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that we published in the Federal Register on June 27, 2013. We expect that these final rules will have a minimal impact on the public, help ensure the integrity of our programs, and allow us to administer our programs more efficiently.

We are giving notice that an agreement coordinating the United States (U.S.) and the Slovak social security programs entered into force on May 1, 2014. The agreement with the Slovak Republic, which was signed on December 10, 2012, is similar to U.S. social security agreements already in force with 24 other countriesAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea (South), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Section 233 of the Social Security Act authorizes agreements of this type. 42 U.S.C. 433.

In accordance with the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) we are issuing public notice of our intent to establish a new system of records entitled, Requests for Accommodation from Members of the Public (60-0378), hereinafter referred to as the RAMP system. We are establishing the RAMP system to cover information we receive from members of the public with disabilities who request accommodations in order to gain meaningful access to our programs. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794) provides that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability will, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency. Section 504 protects ``qualified individuals with disabilities,'' as defined in 45 CFR part 85, as ``persons with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.'' Agencies are required to take appropriate steps to ensure that qualified individuals with a disability are not denied access to the programs and activities the agency conducts because of their disabilities. To ensure compliance with Section 504, the agency may need to provide auxiliary aids or services or modifications to the way it conducts its programs. We will provide accommodations based on five broad categories of impairments: Blind or visual; cognitive or learning; deaf or hard of hearing; mobility or physical; and psychological or emotional. However, individuals who have other types of disabilities may also request an accommodation. We will use the information we collect to provide accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities, to provide management information to the agency, and for research and statistical purposes.

We are amending our regulations to state that we will obtain evidence from any appropriate source. Our current regulations provide that we will obtain information from ``special arrangement sources'' for those infrequent situations when we are in a better position than our State agency partners to obtain evidence. Due to improved evidence collection through our increased use of health information technology (health IT), we are obtaining evidence electronically with increasing frequency. We expect that, over time, the electronic exchange of medical records will become our primary means for obtaining medical evidence. As we increase our use of health IT, the designation of ``special arrangement sources'' will no longer adequately describe from whom we collect evidence.

We are giving notice of SSR 14-2p. This SSR provides information about the types of impairments and limitations that result from diabetes mellitus (DM). It also provides guidance on how we evaluate DM in disability claims under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act.