Although the study was small, 66 patients, several experts considered it compelling because fibromyalgia is a complex and often-confusing condition, affecting five million Americans, mostly women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since its symptoms can be wide-ranging and can mimic other disorders, and its diagnosis depends largely on patients’ descriptions, not blood tests or biopsies, its cause and treatment have been the subject of debate.

“We thought it was notable that The New England Journal accepted this paper, that they would take fibromyalgia on as an issue, and also because tai chi is an alternative therapy that some people raise eyebrows about,” said Dr. Robert Shmerling, clinical chief of rheumatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, co-author of an editorial about the study.

“Fibromyalgia is so common, and we have such a difficult time treating it effectively. It’s defined by what the patient tells you,” he added. “It’s hard for some patients’ families and their doctors to get their head around what it is and whether it’s real. So, that these results were so positive for something that’s very safe is an impressive accomplishment.”

Recent studies have suggested that tai chi, with its slow exercises, breathing and meditation, could benefit patients with other chronic conditions, including arthritis. But not all of these reports have been conclusive, and tai chi is hard to study because there are many styles and approaches.

The phone number for the Green Bay office is still (920) 544-9114. The fax number is (920) 544-0892.

Directions to the Green Bay office can be found here: Directions to Green Bay office.

[Social Security Commissioner Michael] Astrue said that the Social Security office in Madison is being upgraded from a satellite office to a full hearing office, which along with the Milwaukee site gives the state two full offices for hearing appeals. As part of the upgrade, the number of administrative law judges hearing appeals in Madison will triple, going from two to six, he said.

In addition, the Mount Pleasant, Mich., office will also start handling some Wisconsin appeals. By next year, these steps will start to relieve some of the burden on the Milwaukee office and drive down wait times statewide, Astrue said.

The article also discusses the state furlough of employees at the Wisconsin Disability Determination Bureau, which is a source of contention between SSA and the state government:

Disability claims in Wisconsin are first decided by the state Disability Determination Bureau, which also handles initial appeals before sending cases on to federal offices for a second round of appeals. The Determination Bureau is run by the state but paid for with federal money.

Astrue renewed his criticism of a decision by Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration to furlough the bureau’s federally paid workers amid the state budget crisis, even though it doesn’t save the state anything. Astrue said the furloughs increases wait times for disabled applicants for benefits and on Friday he unveiled federal legislation that would ban the practice by states like Wisconsin.

Officials in the Doyle administration have defended their action, saying they are furloughing all state workers because it would be unfair to exempt any group of employees. Stephanie Smiley, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, said that despite the furloughs, Wisconsin has been bucking the national trend by whittling down its own backlog of people waiting for an initial decision on disability benefits.

State figures show the average wait time for applicants so far this year has decreased to 72 days from 108 days for the same period last year. At the same time, the national average for state offices so far this year rose to 90 days from 80 days last year.

But Astrue said that one reason Wisconsin is making progress is because the federal government has stepped in to help by transferring some cases out of the state.

With regard to cases at the hearing level, I have noticed a significant decrease in the wait times for cases at the Milwaukee hearing office.  Milwaukee ODAR has taken over its Green Bay case load and continues to move the cases along at a good pace.  The cases from the Fox Valley continue to be handled by the hearing office out of Santa Barbara, California.

With respect to cases pending at the DDB, I have seen a large number of my cases sent to SSA’s offices in Baltimore for disability determinations, rather than being assigned to DDB in Madison.

I strongly support this crackdown because one of the often overlooked consequences of this is that these misclassified employees  – particularly low wage earners — are often uniformed and do not pay payroll taxes on their own.  When they don’t, they do not contribute to the Social Security trust fund and do not earn quarters of coverage.  If they have worked for a significant period of time as an independent contractor, they often lose (or never acquire) coverage under the Social Security disability program.  A person who may have considered themselves an employee for years may become disabled and discover that they are not eligible to draw from the benefit pool from which other properly-classified workers receive benefits.  Even if they still do qualify because of quarters of coverage earned at other jobs, their benefit amount is likely to be significantly reduced because of the lack of contributions during the period of employment as an independent contractor.  These misclassified employees are thus left to rely on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program which has strict income and asset limitations and usually much smaller payments.