For those attempting to imagine the federalization of workers' compensation, I would suggest that the nuts and bolts not be forgotten. In a truly federal system, cases would have to be heard in some type of federal forum. Consider that — as Jon Gelman noted today on one of his blogs — the Social Security hearing backlog has reached historic proportions. As of last March, there were 1,114, 079 pending claims awaiting a hearing decision with an average age of 318 days. The age and processing time of SSDI claims have been steadily increasing since 2010. I have had personal experience with this backlog in my small, rural state of Wyoming. It took three years for my uncle's (clearly meritorious) SSDI claim to make it to the precipice of hearing. I resolved the claim informally the day before the hearing. It has been 19 years since I handled SSDI claims as part of my job, but even back then it was very hard to get to hearing. I cannot help but think about this nuts and bolts experience with SSDI when reflecting on a federal workers' compensation system. I honestly wonder whether a federal administrative adjudication system could be sufficiently nimble to deal with the day to day claims volume that would come with the territory. And all of this comes before the substantive dilemmas to which I have alluded in prior posts.
Michael C. Duff