by Gene Doyle, LMSW At the top right hand corner of the Notice of Fair Hearing (OAH-457), i.e., the scheduling notice, there is a three digit code, which indicates the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who has been assigned to conduct the Fair Hearing: To look up a specific ALJ code, search the...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) issues periodic instructions to its staff and to local social services districts on various procedures pertaining to the processing of Fair Hearing requests and the scheduling of hearings. OAH Procedures Transmittals for 2020: ...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) has begun to issue a new type of communication simply called OAH Transmittals. These new transmittals are different from the OAH Procedures Transmittals, which have been issued for many years to provide instructions to OAH staff and...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW State Fair Hearing regulations authorize the issuance of corrected decisions where there is a production error or an error of law or fact [18 NYCRR § 358-6.6(a)] and also authorize the reopening of previously closed Fair Hearing records to complete the records [18 NYCRR §...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW These annual statistics were obtained from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) through the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The original OTDA data is available upon request. These tables contain the annual total of Fair Hearing issues...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW On May 18, 1971, George W. Chesbro, the Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services (NYSDSS), promulgated new regulations at 18 NYCRR §§ 300.3, 300.4 and 300.5. In a May 12, 1971 memorandum, NYSDSS Counsel Felix Infausto recommended that the...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Social Services Law § 22[2] authorizes the Commissioner to designate "one or more appropriate members of his [sic] staff to consider and decide such appeals. Any staff member so designated and authorized shall have authority to decide such appeals on behalf of the...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Fair Hearing Information System (FHIS) Codes The Fair Hearing Information System (FHIS) is a sub-system of New York State's Welfare Management System (WMS), maintained by OTDA. FHIS tracks each administrative appeal from the date of the appeal was requested to the date of...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Several companies offer online legal research services, which allow users to search for federal and state court decisions as well as federal and state laws and regulations. Two of the most widely used services are Westlaw and Lexis. These services are available through...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Governor Mario Cuomo's Executive Order No. 131 requires state agency to file reports on their administrative adjudication plans every two years. These biennial reports must set forth "the steps taken by the agency to comply with this Order . . . [and] include statistics on...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW In the January 30, 1991 edition of the New York State Register, the New York State Department of Social Services (NYSDSS) announced the developed of its Administrative Adjudication Plan in accordance with Governor Mario M. Cuomo's Executive Order No. 131. See 9 NYCRR § 4.131....

by Gene Doyle, LMSW On December 4, 1989, Governor Mario M. Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 131, which requires every state agency responsible for administrative adjudication to develop and implement an administrative adjudication plan by July 1, 1990. This Executive Order has been codified in...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW On February 19, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted an amicus brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Lisnitzer v Zucker, No. 19-470, declaring that Medicaid regulations . . . require a State's fair hearing to render a final and...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW To comply with the Stipulation and Order of Settlement in Rafferty v Doar, 13-CV-1410 (S.D.N.Y. October 23, 2015), OTDA and DOH jointly issued Administrative Directive 16-ADM-08 on June 22, 2016 to provide "social services districts (SSD) with a summary and instructions on...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW OTDA revised 18 NYCRR § 358-5.5, effective November 13, 2012, as a result of the settlement of Matter of Johnson v Berlin, Index No. 400081/2010 (Sup. Ct. New York Co. September 19, 2012). OTDA replaced 18 NYCRR § 358-5.5 with a new version, effective April 1, 2020, as a...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW New York State Policy According to 18 NYCRR § 358-5.5(a), "(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b) of this section, OAH will consider a fair hearing request abandoned if neither the appellant nor the appellant’s authorized representative appears at a fair hearing,...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Federal and state regulations require that appellants and their representatives have access to their case records at any time prior to and during their Fair Hearings. See 45 CFR § 205.10(a)(13)(i); 42 CFR § 431.242(a); 7 CFR § 273.15(p)(1); 18 NYCRR §§ 358-3.7(a)(1) and...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW In Varshavsky v Perales, Index No. 40767/91 (Sup. Ct. New York Co. March 5, 1992), affd. 202 A.D.2d 155 (1st Dept. 1994), the court certified a statewide plaintiff class, consisting of "all applicants for and recipients of public assistance benefits residing in New York...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW In the landmark case of Goldberg v Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 264 (1970), brought by New York City public assistance recipients, the United States Supreme Court held that "when welfare is discontinued, only a pre-termination evidentiary hearing provides the recipient with procedural...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) has issued various memoranda and e-mails to Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) [also called Hearing Officers (HOs)] to clarify Fair Hearing policies and/or interpret state Fair Hearing regulations [18 NYCRR Part 358]. OAH...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW The Fair Hearing Decision Archive of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) contains redacted copies of all Fair Hearing Decisions, which have been issued since November 2010. As of December 14, 2018, OTDA's Fair Hearing Decision Archive...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Under federal and state regulations, appellants are entitled to the payment or reimbursement of necessary costs and expenses related to their Fair Hearings. See 45 CFR § 205.10(b)(4); 42 CFR § 431.250(f); 18 NYCRR §§ 358-3.4(i) and 358-4.3(d). The state regulations, in...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW As explained in 18 NYCRR § 358-3.4(i), "As an appellant you have the right: * * * "(i) at your request to the social services agency, to receive necessary transportation or transportation expenses to and from the fair hearing for yourself and your representatives and...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW Since January 1, 2014, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has administered the New York State of Health (NYSOH), a state-run health exchange (or health insurance marketplace), established under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known...

by Gene Doyle, LMSW In a January 5, 2004 memorandum to ALJs, Deputy General Counsel for Administrative Hearings Russell J. Hanks set forth OAH policy with respect to the application of the statute of limitations (SOL) in cases where the potential appellant has died before a Fair Hearing is...