SSA’s Fraud Re-determination Process Violates Due Process Rights

According to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) fraud re-determination process violated the due process rights of many Social Security beneficiaries. In a well-publicized case, many medical opinions were thrown out by SSA because of assumed fraud. Beneficiaries who were approved based on those opinions were not allowed to challenge whether or not those opinions were in fact fraudulent. A federal court found that this violated due process rights, and a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. SSA attempted to have the decision reheard by the entire Circuit Court of Appeals, but that petition was denied. This leaves in place the finding that SSA violated claimant’s due process rights.