Fast Track Process Public Use Files

We are committed to providing benefits quickly to claimants whose medical conditions are so serious that they clearly meet our disability standards. Our two fast-track processes, Quick Disability Determinations (QDD) and Compassionate Allowances (CAL), use technology to identify claimants with the most severe disabilities and allow us to expedite our decisions on those cases while maintaining accuracy. These initiatives have been two of our greatest successes in recent years. We can approve some cases in a matter of days instead of months.

The QDD process uses a computer-based predictive model to screen initial applications to identify cases where a favorable disability determination is highly likely and medical evidence is readily available. By identifying QDD claims early in the process, we can prioritize this workload and expedite case processing. We have used QDD nationally since February 2008. We continue to refine the QDD predictive model to reflect the characteristics of the recent applicant population and optimize its ability to identify strong candidates for expedited processing. For more information about the QDD process, see the Quick Disability Determinations homepage.

The CAL process is a way to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that by definition, meet our standards for disability benefits. These conditions primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and a number of rare disorders that affect children. The CAL initiative helps us reduce waiting time to reach a disability determination for individuals with the most serious disabilities. The CAL process identifies claims where the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets the statutory standard for disability. By incorporating cutting-edge technology, we can easily identify potential Compassionate Allowances to quickly make decisions. We use the same rules to evaluate CAL conditions when evaluating both Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. For more information about the CAL process, see the Compassionate Allowances homepage.

Description

Fast-tracked cases consist of those cases identified as Quick Disability Determination (QDD), Compassionate Allowance (CAL), or both. A case can include one or more claims filed by an individual.

The datasets provide, by state, the total number and percentage of initial disability fast-track and electronic cases that were received and accepted by the Disability Determination Services (DDS), Extended Service Team (EST), or a federal site beginning with fiscal year (FY) 2010.

The datasets are updated and reported annually based on the fiscal year. The fiscal year ends on the last Friday of September. For example, FY 2010 represents the reporting periods of September 26, 2009 through September 24, 2010. A reporting month runs from the last Saturday of the month through the last Friday of the following month.

Data Collection Description

The datasets represent the agency's programmatic disability data used to administer the disability process and are published in official agency reports.

Technical Documentation

We provide the datasets for FY 2010 through 2023 in an excel spreadsheet (.xls) and a comma-separated values (.csv) file. The data are summarized at the state level, sorted in ascending order by state, and include the following categories:

• State (Column A)
• State Abbreviation (Column B)
• Region (Column C)
• Total Fast-Track Receipts (Column D)
• Total DDS Electronic Receipts (Column E)
• % of Fast-Track Receipts (Column F)

Data Dictionary

Data Files

The following data file is in excel (.xls) format.
Percent of Fast-Track Receipts for FY 2010-2023

The following data file is in CSV format.
Percent of Fast-Track Receipts for FY 2010-2023