Followup on Department of Labor's Actions on GAO's July 1977 Report on Administration of the Black Lung Benefits Program

GAO made recommendations to the Department of Labor in 1977 pertaining to its administration of the black lung benefits program. A review has been made on the Labor actions to reduce the backlog of black lung claims, and on the GAO 1977 recommendations. The 1977 report noted that Labor was processing claims slowly and that the claims backlog was increasing. At that time, it was recommended that Labor: (1) allocate adequate resources and staff to effectively and efficiently carry out its responsibilities; (2) review and revise its claims processing procedures to reduce the delays between processing steps; (3) establish criteria on the timeliness of completing the informal hearing process; (4) determine the feasibility of having all X-rays re-read so that claimants whose X-rays are initially interpreted as negative for black lung are given every opportunity to qualify for benefits; and (5) establish an effective program to respond promptly to claimant inquiries on the status of their claims and to provide for more direct communications between the Labor national office and the field offices after the claim is filed.