The Social Security Administration is close to finalizing new rules to codify the agency’s expanded use of audio and video technology to conduct disability determination hearings, after those formats remained popular even after the end of COVID-19 lockdowns.

If an American who has applied for Social Security disability benefits initially receives a denial of their application, they can appeal that decision and opt for a hearing before an administrative law judge. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the SSA offered a mix of in-person and “agency video” hearings, a term used when the applicant attends the hearing virtually from an SSA field office, as well as a limited number of hearings by telephone.

The outbreak of the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, which led to the closure of most public places, forced the authority to massively expand all its options for virtual hearings. Among other things, applicants with disabilities were allowed to participate in hearings using their own video equipment, such as smartphones or webcams, from home.

But since the introduction of vaccines against the virus, virtual hearings have remained popular with SSA employees and applicants alike. In a final rule issued in Federal Register On Monday, the agency will formalize its current hearing options in its regulations.

“In March 2020, we began offering applicants the opportunity to appear at hearings by telephone and later offered applicants the additional opportunity to appear by online video in response to the COVID-19 national health emergency,” the agency wrote. “Based on our positive experience with these appearances during the COVID-19 national health emergency and beyond, and in an effort to bring more flexibility to our rules for applicants, we are adopting audio and online video as the default appearance methods in our hearing process.”

Under the new rules, the agency may schedule hearings for disability benefit claimants by phone or videoconference as a default, although claimants have the right to decline those options in favor of another option or an in-person hearing. If a claimant objects to virtual hearings, he or she cannot object to an in-person hearing.

Online video is a little different – ​​in this category, applicants use their own video equipment for a virtual hearing. In order for the agency to schedule an online video hearing, the applicant must actively opt in to the service.

“Applicants may object to participation by audio or agency video, and an applicant must consent to participation by online video before we schedule that mode of participation,” the SSA wrote. “If an applicant objects to audio and agency video and does not consent to online video, we will schedule an in-person hearing for that applicant. However, in certain limited circumstances, we will order audio participation regardless of the applicant’s objection to that mode of participation.”

The new regulation comes into force on November 23rd.