The Social Security Administration’s Field Office Remittance Process
SSA field offices (FO) receive checks, money orders, cash, and credit card payments for Medicare premium payments and Title II/XVI overpayment refunds. They also collect fees for services. SSA defines these payments as remittances.
FOs input remittance information in SSA’s Debt Management System (DMS). DMS generates forwarding instruction sheets for remittances, such as fees for services, which SSA’s Office of Finance processes for deposit. DMS generates a scannable payment coupon for remittances, such as overpayment refunds, that FOs mail to SSA’s debt management section at the Mid-Atlantic Program Service Center (MATPSC) for deposit.
For discrepant remittances, MATPSC may notify the originating FO for corrective actions or correct the discrepancies themselves. If MATPSC does not receive and verify remittances within 20 days of FO input, DMS generates an initial alert for the originating FO on day 21. DMS generates a follow-up alert on day 42 and a final alert on day 60 for those initial alerts not cleared by FOs.
The purpose of this report was to assess the SSA FO remittance process.