POMS Background Information

POMS
The Program Operations Manual System

What is POMS?
How are POMS Organized?
Access To and Maintenance of POMS?
Why use the POMS, how can they help?

What Is the POMS?

The Program Operations Manual System, or POMS, is a massive, multi-volume manual of substantive and procedural material for the adjudication and processing of all claims under the jurisdiction of the Social Security Administration (SSA) at district and field offices, central office, regional offices, and program service centers. It is not applicable to the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) or the Appeals Council.

The POMS is the successor to a number of earlier manuals that provided instructions piecemeal to the various components of the SSA. The POMS is the SSA’s latest attempt to consolidate, in a single place, all operating instructions to its service personnel, whether at district or field offices, central office, or service centers around the country.

Originally, the POMS came out of a reorganization, consolidation, and updating of the pieces of its predecessor manuals. Over the course of time, the original version has been reworked repeatedly, including major revisions of organization, substance, and style in its many parts. Such changes are effected by periodic supplemental transmittals. Maintaining the paper version of the POMS to keep it current and accurate is a practical and logistical nightmare for anyone who has a copy, including personnel at the SSA.

How are POMS Organized

The POMS is organized by subject matter. The organization, however, does not mean that all instructions on a particular subject will be found in one place. Substantive or processing instructions related to a specific disability question, for example, might be found in any or all of the following parts: Part 2 (general), Part 4 (disability), and Part 5 (Supplemental Security Income).

Structurally, the POMS are organized into parts, chapters, subchapters, and sections. The largest division is parts, each comprising a different major subject area. There are 14 parts. For a disability practice, for example, the principal parts of interest are Part 4, Disability; Part 5, 551; and Part 6, Health insurance (Medicare). Other parts which may be of interest are Part 2, General; Part 3, Retirement and Survivors; and Part 14, Directory of SSA Rulings.

The next subdivision within a part is the chapter, each of which covers a specific topic. Chapters are divided into subchapters, covering topics within a chapter. A section is the smallest major division within a chapter.

Reference to every provision of the POMS is by two-letter prefix and at least eight numbers. The two letters indicate which part is involved; the first three numbers, the chapter; the next two numbers, the subchapter; and following a period, the last three numbers, the section. For example:

GN	005	02.	001
Part	Chapter	Subchapter	Section

The entire provision is referenced by a section symbol (§) for citation purposes, and introduced by "SSA." For example, SSA POMS § GN 00502.001.

ACCESS TO AND MAINTENANCE OF POMS

Access
The POMS is supposed to be available in every district office or field office and at all OHAs for public inspection and photocopying. A copy of the POMS can also be obtained from the SSA office in Baltimore, either in whole, for a fee, or in selected parts, for free. Call the SSA public information or publication office for specific information.

In the alternative, for practitioners not interested in the "grand design," SSA personnel will provide a copy of any POMS provision on which they rely, so that the practitioner knows what rules are being applied and can evaluate whether a rule is appropriate to the case, whether it is properly applied, and whether it conforms with, or is in violation of, any statutory or regulatory provision.

Maintenance
Obtaining the basic POMS sections is easy compared with keeping them up-to-date once they are acquired. Updates come in a variety of forms: emergency instructions, temporary instructions, permanent instructions, and instructions relevant to one specific region (usually per circuit court decision).

The SSA does not have a well-organized subscription system by which to distribute amendments and changes as they occur, except within its own network of federal and state agency offices. Hence, for practitioners who may have, or want to have, their own POMS, transmittals must be obtained in one of the following ways:

By contacting the local SSA district office to request regular notification whenever POMS updates are published, to request copies of updates, or to copy updates oneself;
By calling the SSA in Baltimore at least once each month to find out if POMS updates have been issued and to ask that a copy be sent; or
By subscribing through a private distribution service.

Why Use the POMS? How Can It Help?

The POMS can be of use in a number of ways, either independently or in conjunction with other sources of authority, such as the Code of Federal Regulations, Social Security rulings, and federal court decisions.

If a practitioner gets involved in cases at the initial or reconsideration stage, the POMS is the information source (both substantive and procedural) to which SSA personnel will look for adjudicative guidance; it, therefore, behooves the practitioner to know what material in that guide may be useful to his or her client’s claim.

Because the POMS provides details in the form of specific rules and factual examples that explain and often elucidate the application of specific regulatory provisions, it provides a source of information and a perspective that may not be found elsewhere.

Despite the fact that the POMS does not apply to administrative law judges (ALJs) or the Appeals Council, much of the substantive material found in the POMS tracks, and even duplicates, material from Social Security rulings that do bind ALJs and the council. In such cases, it becomes clear that the same standards should be applied throughout the adjudicative process, which can strengthen a practitioner’s argument whenever deviation occurs between levels in the process.

Note: In years past, POMS writers were less than scrupulous about citing relevant SSA rulings on which a POMS section might be based. In recent revisions of the POMS, however, this deficiency seems to have been corrected, so that at the beginning of each major section relevant rulings are indicated. Because the POMS is organized by subject, those who have access to POMS may find it easier to locate relevant rulings by reference to the POMS rather than by direct reference to the various ruling indexes, none of which is particularly easy to use.

When certain issues arise either within the state agency adjudication or at the AL level, especially with respect to medical-vocational assessments, citation to the POMS or SSA rulings can provide authority to counter unsupported assumptions ALJs too often make (e.g., defining skills, deciding which skills are transferable, and gauging the impact, say, of the loss of use of an arm or a hand), as well as provide a way to challenge vocational opinions obtained by the Disability Determination Service or vocational testimony obtained by an Administrative Law Judge.

Procedurally, the POMS can provide the means to challenge incomplete or inaccurate residual functional capacity assessments, which are heavily relied on in some jurisdictions, even in the face of contrary treating physician opinions.

Additionally, because the SSA insists that the POMS is consistent with statutes and regulations, when helpful to a claimant, citing the POMS should be, if not binding on ALJs or the Appeals Council (or even in federal court), at least persuasive.

Finally, the POMS is one more weapon in the arsenal of the advocate, which begins with the Social Security Act and related statutes, and includes the Code of Federal Regulations; federal court, especially circuit court, decisions; and SSA rulings.

Source Information: This section was prepared by and posted with the permission of:
Barbara Samuels, Esq., Legal Services for New York City 350 Broadway New York, NY 10013.212-431-7200 extension 129 212-966-9571 fax
bsamuels@legalsupport.org

Last date reviewed no legal content July 2003 (MLAN/CK)