Pursuant to the Varshavsky v. Perales litigation, and in accordance with a preliminary injunction, the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) has instituted a procedure for conducting home hearings for homebound appellants for those cases already held, but not issued, where there are non-aid issues for which an affirmance has been recommended by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). These are cases where the representative appeared on behalf of the homebound appellant (issue code 997) or where the appellant testified in a homebound telephone hearing (issue code 999).
Beginning August 4, 1995 these types of cases will be reopened, the issue code 900 will be added by staff in the Homebound Hearing Unit to signify that a Home Hearing will be scheduled, and the attached notice will be forwarded with the scheduling notice. For statistical reporting, it is important that the original issue codes 997 or 999 be retained. The 900 code will be added by staff in the Homebound Hearing Unit, as an additional code. Note: All home hearings have been determined by the court to be subject to AID CONTINUING despite previous aid status.
Aside from the 900 issue code, there are three unique ways to distinguish these cases:
(1) Review the Comment section of the DSS 1891 and laser DSS 457 for the following language:
"Pursuant to the preliminary injunction in Varshavsky v. Perales, the Agency is directed to provide "aid-continuing" to the appellant pending the home hearing. In this case "aid-continuing" requires ___________________________________________________________________." ( # of hours, etc. to be spelled out in Comments)
Note: Henry Pedicone will be responsible for determining what constitutes aid continuing on a case-by-case basis and staff in the Homebound Hearing Unit will be responsible for updating the system.)
(2) Check the message field on PFHINQ or PFHREQ for the following language:
"AC per Varshavsky v. Perales
(3) Refer to the hard copy DSS 457 which is being sent to all parties for the words "Home Hearing" and the appellant's home address in Section F, "Place of Hearing."*
There are many scheduling considerations in trying to get these cases calendared and, while every attempt will be made to accommodate individualized scheduling concerns, the need to schedule Home Hearings promptly is paramount. Home Hearings in NYC will initially consist of approximately 50 non-aid MA and OHC cases. Upstate procedures have yet to be determined for the approximately 25 non-aid cases. Future calendars will be devised for aid-continuing cases that have decisions pending, as well.
It is essential that all inquiries regarding Home Hearings (requests for adjournments, aid-continuing inquiries or redirects, possible withdrawals, etc.) are referred to the Homebound Hearing Unit for proper handling. Channeling all inquiries to either Karen Longale or Doris Flagler will ensure that the directives of the court order are consistently applied.
Further information will be provided as available. Questions can be directed to your supervisor or Sue Fiehl at (518) 473-4779 or via e-mail at 90j029; or to the Homebound Hearing Unit (Karen Longale at 486-6484 or via e-mail 89a681; or Doris Flagler at 473-7055 or via e-mail la0180.)
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*Until system changes can be effected, the electronic DSS 457 notification to the agency will continue to indicate Telephone Hearing at the top and will NOT indicate the appellant's home address but will continue to indicate as the hearing location the local agency, or in NYC, the appropriate borough.
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