Oregon Presumptive Eligibility Legislation (Oreg.)

Senate Bill 913, passed in 2005, enables the Department of Human Services to make a "presumptive determination" for chronically mentally ill individuals to receive medical benefits on release or to suspend, rather than terminate benefits.

Source: http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=105569.

Transitional Correctional Unit (N.Y.)

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) reviews and rules on the medical evidence of disability that is submitted to support the claim of disability through its Division of Disability Determinations. New York State has established a transitional correctional unit for persons with mental illnesses, and OTDA agreed to channel all applications from this unit to a previously determined group of only five medical examiners. These changes have resulted in increased communication and problem identification, as well as some successful eligibility determinations before release.

Source: Justice Center, Reentry Policy Council, “Case Study: New York,” available at: http://www.reentrypolicy.org/fedbens_pubs_tools.

SSA Prerelease Procedure

SSA offices will process SSI benefits several months before an anticipated release from an institution so that benefits can begin soon after an individual’s release; this process is known as SSA's prerelease procedure. However, SSA offices still will not pay for SSI/SSDI benefits when an individual resides in a public institution (see Special Topic: Eligibility for more information).

Eligibility Determination

Social Security field offices or state disability determination services may offer "presumptive eligibility" to certain SSI applicants before a full medical evaluation of that individual has taken place if there is a high probability that they will be deemed disabled. In such cases, SSI applicants may receive benefits for up to six months while a formal determination is pending.^[1] Click here for more information on types of disabilities for which these offices may award presumptive eligibility.

In some states or counties, jail or prison administrators may be able to develop agreements or arrangements with state offices overseeing Medicaid eligibility to award eligibility to certain applicants before evaluations have been completed if there is a high likelihood that the individual will be deemed disabled. (see Lane County, Ore., Presumptive Disability Legislation example, above).

Agreements with State Disability Determination Services

In most states, disability claims related to SSI/SSDI are processed through state agencies called disability determination services (DDS).^[2] Some states have developed agreements with SSA offices to develop specialized units within the DDS or specialized staff within the DDS to process claims from homeless applicants (see Boston, MA, Homeless DDS Unit example). Staff of such units may be specially attuned to issues facing applicants who are homeless (e.g., lack of address or inability to access some types of documentation) and also may be able to expedite these individuals’ disability determinations. Corrections officials could initiate agreements with SSA offices to develop specialized units or staff within DDSs to process disability determinations for individuals applying from jails or prisons.