Clients & Friends of PBI-

The House & Senate have approved the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 which includes Section 203, restricting access to the SSA DMF for a period of 3 years, except to persons who are certified under a program to be established by the Secretary of Commerce.The President has already said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk.

Our goal in providing this information is to ensure that clients & friends of PBI are aware of the changes to be made if the Senate passes the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.

What does this mean to clients of PBI?

Under the program, those who have a fraud protection interest or other legitimate need for the information and agree to maintain the information under safeguards similar to those of Federal agencies under Section 6103(p)(4) of title 26 of the United States Code, may apply for certification. The Department of Commerce will review the eligibility of applicants, examine the safeguards and conduct audits of certified entities to ensure compliance. They will also establish and collect user fees sufficient to recover all costs associated with the certification program. We believe all of PBI’s clients fall under the fraud protection or legitimate need for access categorization. As far as safeguards, PBI has previously invested in the data security policies & procedures to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PBI doesn’t anticipate this to be a hindrance since data security is a top priority at PBI.

When is this scheduled to go into effect?

Section 203 would become effective 90 days after the date of enactment.

What else is in Section 203?

Strict Penalties (seethe link belowwith the details that affect PBI and our clients)

What we know as of this moment:

*The National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a cost-recovery government agency with the Department of Commerce, and the current distributor of the SSA DMF, will be instrumental in certification & delivery of the DMF.

*Guidelines have not yet been established for the certification program.

*As a result, there’s no indication on how long the certification process will take.

*NTIS has advised us that our service will not be shut off if the certification is not completed in 90 days.

We have also worked for the past 2 years to educate those in Congress about the unintended and disastrous consequences of the changes made through the re-interpretation of section 205(r) of the Social Security Act.

We hope you will join us in supporting PBI as we work to insure death data continues to be available to legitimate entities as soon as feasibly possible.

How can you help?

PBI will be providing a petition that we would like your plan, firm or organization to provide endorsements regarding the importance of receiving death records in a timely manner. We will utilize this information with those on Capitol Hill, The Department of Commerce, NTIS, the DOL and others to gain exposure to the unintended consequences of the decision made to limit state EDR records from the DMF and ensure that access remains uninterrupted. It’s critical that PBI experiences NO down time while the Department of Commerce determines how to implement a certification program. PBI processes millions of records per week through our death audit platforms in order to proactively prevent overpayments, and we must continue to support these efforts in a timely manner.

You can read the text of section 203 below or follow the link provided.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/murray-ryan_leg_text.pdf

Sec. 203. Restriction on access to the death master file

The Death Master File (DMF) is a list of deceased individuals maintained by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The DMF contains the full name, Social Security Number, date of birth, and date of death for listed decedents, and it is updated weekly. This information is distributed through the Department of Commerce and is widely available on many websites for free or for a nominal fee. Section 203 would establish a program under which the Secretary of Commerce restricts access to the information contained on the DMF for a three-year period beginning on the date of the individual’s death, except to persons who are certified under a program to be established by the Secretary of Commerce. Under the program, persons who have a fraud prevention interest or other legitimate need for the information and agree to maintain the information under safeguards similar to those required of Federal agencies that receive return information, as described in section 6103(p)(4) of title 26 of the United States Code, may apply for certification. The Secretary of Commerce reviews the eligibility of applicants, examines safeguards for protecting the information and conducts audits of certified entities to assure compliance with safeguards.

As part of implementation of the required program, the Secretary of Commerce is required to establish and collect user fees sufficient to recover all costs associated with the certification program. The Secretary of Commerce is required to report both the total fees collected and the total costs of administering the certification program. The required report is to be submitted annually to both the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means.

A penalty of $1,000 for each disclosure or misuse of the information is imposed on any persons who improperly disclose the DMF information. A certified person in receipt of DMF information is responsible for any subsequent disclosure of such information. Even if the initial disclosure to a third party is appropriate, if that third party subsequently improperly discloses the information, the certified person is deemed to have also improperly disclosed the information. Thus, in a case in which the improper disclosure is made by a third party who received the information from a certified person, both the certified person and the person who improperly disclosed the information are subject to the penalty. The penalty may not exceed $250,000 per person for any calendar year, except in the case of willful disclosure. In such cases, the penalty is not limited.

The provision also brings the DMF within the scope of the exemptions available under the Freedom of Information Act to ensure that Federal agencies do not disclose the information about deceased individuals maintained by SSA or contained in the DMF, except to recipients who are certified persons.

Section 203 would be effective 90 days after the date of enactment, except for the FOIA exemption, which would be effective upon date of enactment.

PBI welcomes the opportunity to share important information to you regarding the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF). In particular, the re-interpretaion of Section 205(r) of the Social Security Act that decreased the number of records included in the DMF by 40%. Send an email to inquiry@pbinfo.com if you would like additional information.