Ombudsman -- how long before receiving a response?

hollifls · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 9 Location: Fairfield, OH

We have had a claim pending at the Appeals Council for roughly 24 months. I sent a fax to the Ombudsman last week asking for assistance in determining the status of the claim, as we've had problems getting a response from the AC and our client contacts us constantly for updates. Since faxing our request to the Ombudsman, our client has called twice to ask about her claim. I acknowledged that she has been very patient so far, but asked that she allow a bit more time to allow the Ombudsman to respond to us.

This was my first fax to the Ombudsman. How long does it typically take to receive a response?

JOA · Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 2021

I'm off the clock for this message.

Please don't think I'm speaking for anybody with this post. Let's say that what I'm posting here came to me out of the air. Because I have pulled what comes below out of the air, without showing that there's any substance to it, it's subject to description as airy-fairy. Or say rather, it might be wrong. Please see the disclaimer.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/airy-fairy

What comes to me out of the air is that turnaround time is typically less than a week. The response is usually a copy of the incoming fax, faxed back and annotated to show whatever action might have been warranted, usually a referral to the responsible component. Turnaround time might be slower for those advocates who treat the Ombudsman in clerical kind of way, making routine status inquiries for lengthy lists of cases.

The Ombudsman fax number is 703 605 7101. This is a shared number for an entire suite of administrative offices. So there's always a possibility that a particular inquiry drowned in the flood. Material for the Ombudsman should therefore be marked in some VERY prominent way.

This year's goals for OAO prominently include a reduction in the number of 700-day-old cases—of which there are not a few. (The number was in the latest issue of the in-house newsletter, but I disremember what it was. I think it might have had four figures but not five.)

Part of the old-case solution is to transfer cases out of backlogged branches to elsewhere. A typical destination for transferred cases will be to what are called the "Baltimore 2" branches, brand-new branches 28 to 32. (That might be 28 to 31. The aging memory holds details better for remote than recent events.). These are branches predominantly staffed by attorney advisors hired in 2009. Advocates should expect to have no contact with the Baltimore 2 branches except for notices of interim or final action. The Baltimore folks are supposed to get only "ready to work" cases, meaning no cases calling for routine correspondence, such as a response to a request for a copy of the audio recording. In fact, because the Baltimore 2 branches have either no or next to no support staff, they're not really equipped to do anything except to issue notices of denial, remand, or decision.