I have noticed over the last several months an increase in the number of hearings coming out of the new National Hearing Centers. Because I handle cases all over the country it gives me a big picture look at how Social Security is handling the backlogs at the hearing level of the Social Security disability process. I am one lawyer and it is a small sample, but it appears like video hearings from the National Hearing Centers are having an impact on reducing the backlog in certain areas of the country. In my own practice, I have noticed more cases being assigned to these national hearing centers. I think it has had a real impact in some of the most severely backlogged hearing offices. I say this because when I looked at the most recent numbers on the processing times for hearing offices some of the ODAR offices that have in the past had severe backlogs have significantly decreased their average processing times. My experience with these new National Hearing Center ALJ's has been a positive one and I think their impact will be even greater when they are all up and running at full capacity. This gives the Social Security Administration the ability to look at areas of the country where hearing office wait times our greatest and then concentrating those National Hearing Centers on those regions to help bring them in line with the processing times of the rest of the country. Hopefully, this should reduce the waiting time for all claimants at the hearing level. In the past, SSA would use hearing offices of one state to hold hearings by video or traveling judge in another state to reduce the backlogs. With the opening of these new national hearing centers it appears like it is giving the Social Security Administration the advantage of being able to address these backlogs without having to take judges from existing hearing locations. The advantage of the national hearing centers is that these backlogs can be addressed without cutting the productivity of another hearing office. I have been doing Social Security disability cases for a long time and the changes that SSA has made over the past five or so years I believe have been very significant in helping to reduce the backlog or at least keep it steady amongst the rising amount of claims.

I was recently notified by the reversing IBS website that my website ultimate Disability Guide has been awarded with the "Excellence in Healthcare Content Award". I want to thank the Reversing IBS website for the award and you can find it on the awards page of this website. It is nice to be recognized by other websites for the content my website provides for those in need of information on Social Security Disability law. If you suffer from IBS I have reviewed their website and can tell you it is full of useful information on the subject of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Receiving awards for my website and the many e-mails from my readers encourages me to continue to provide the best and most up-to-date information on Social Security disability and SSI that I can. If you are new to my website make sure to take advantage of all the free information on SSD and SSI that you will have difficulty finding anywhere else on the web. It takes a lot of time and effort to write as often and as much as I do on this website, so I always appreciate when others acknowledge the quality of the information and the hard work that goes into maintaining a website like this. Thanks again to the Reversing IBS website for the award and I will continue to add more informative content for my readers so that everyone has access to the information on Social Security Disability that they need to give themselves the best chance to win their disability claim.