[Nfbmo] Information from FSD on Blind Pension/S A B

[Eugene S Coulter]

Here is a note from FSD regarding progress on PB/SAB changes that we requested. I’ll share the contents  unedited.
Eugene Coulter, Social Services Liaison
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri



I know it has been a while since we were all last together and since we first began the process of creating an office to specialize for our visually impaired customers.  We have been working diligently on cases this past year throughout the process.  You may have heard from customers as we have been reaching out to many trying to update cases as well as trying to correct inaccuracies that we have found.  In the process of trying to get visual reviews updated we have inadvertently created a bit of a backlog for visual field exams for some applicants in a few of our larger areas.  We have also tried to not send anyone for a visual exam if we can find a way around it and we have waived over 300 cases so far.  Most without a visual exam.  

 

We are very excited to see a lot of positive results and we welcome you to send us issues your customers are having so that we may resolve them based on policy and the expert knowledge we are creating with this unit.  We have certainly learned a lot along the way and continue to learn.  We have put our application, eligibility review and our visual review packet in large print through the Braille and Narration Center so that we have them for any customer who would prefer large print.  These will be posted on our website in the future as well.  Since our meeting they have printed “Time Sensitive” on the eligibility review packets and send those out on yellow paper.  They are working on robo calls and from what I hear; some of these calls have begun to take place.  

 

Our unit is expected to be stood up September 1, 2015 although we have been working cases since December 2014.  We didn’t have all the cases under our office so we have been working them off lists and through contacts from you as well as our fellow workers.  The bulk of our cases should be showing up by the end of this month though so we will have even better knowledge of who are customers are and how we can help them.  

 

We have made a few changes recently and I do want to share those with you.  We moved our processing center to Troy, MO although the staff that work on the cases has not changed.  We have just added more staff to work them out of the Warrenton, Troy and Bowling Green offices.  We receive all of our mail in the Troy office now at PO Box 158, Troy, MO 63379.  Please feel free to share this information with your customers if they need to get mail to us.  The fax number is 636-528-3861.  We will be utilizing a toll free number which routes to our Warrenton office.  That number is 1-866-877-8155 and can be shared with customers who need to reach us directly instead of trying to call their local office or the Call Center.  

 

We hope that we are continuing to make progress and we welcome your suggestions or input.  

 

Kristin Gentry

Lincoln, Pike & Warren County Manager



Montgomery City Resource Center

Owensville Resource Center