SSA Issues New Standard Fee Structure For Non-Program Related Requests

Social Security released an Emergency Message (EM) effective July 1, 2014 that details their new standard fee structure for processing non-program related requests. Some of the more common services include copying medical folders and providing queries (e.g. FACT, SEQY). Below is a table of the new fees, as well as an example provided in the EM:

Example: An insurance company is contesting an individual’s claim for long-term disability benefits in court. 

• They obtained valid consent from the number holder for information from SSA records (GN 03305.001).
• The consent specifies that SSA may release verification of the SSN, the monthly amount of Social Security benefits from June 2004 through the present, Medicare entitlement information, and the complete medical records.
• In addition, the requester asks that SSA certify the entire package of documents for submission as evidence in the court case.
• We will charge the requester the standard fee for manual SSN verification, the standard fee for an extract from SSA records (for the monthly benefit and Medicare entitlement information), the standard fee for a copy of a paper disability folder, and the standard fee for RO certification.

We [SSA] inform the requester the total fee will be $196:

$29 Standard fee for manual SSN verification

$33 Standard fee for an extract from SSA records

$86 Standard fee for a copy of a paper folder

$48 Standard fee for RO certification