Tom Coburn

I know you evaluated the patients.

So you are asserting that his status is totally unchanged from 2005.

So you found no objective findings that were different than the subjective complaints that were given to you by the claimant?

As a matter of fact, in this particular one, the information in both sections is word for word identical.

So you did not routinely perform a mental status examination on patients?

I will help you out there.

I said 'physician' because that means you care for the whole person.

Well, thank you both for being here. I appreciate you coming.

We are going to have a doctor in the next panel that both made recommendations for Social Security and recommendations for Mr. Conn.

In May 2011, some of the details about the arrangement with Mr. Conn and Judge Daugherty became public in an article, which you before related to. What was the reaction inside the Conn law office at that time?

SSA rules prohibit claimant lawyers from charging their clients for doctor visits when additional evidence is requested.

So he would back date it to the age grid or he would back date it to the last denial?

All right. We have heard from many judges that ALJ hearings can take as long as an hour or more.

And it is true that you notified Mr. Hall that you were aware that Judge Daugherty was assigning himself cases as well?

That is a violation of the rules inside Social Security. Is that correct?

So you meet the numbers, but you did not really do anything?

I would like to thank my Chairman, Tom Carper, and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), Senators Levin and McCain, for their support and their hard work on this investigation.

Do you think there is a problem with that?

So are the forms right or wrong? Are all these forms right? You did not fill them out. You just signed them.

All right. Ms. Slone, one of the most troubling findings of our investigation is Mr. Conn destroyed a huge volume of documents related to his disability practice once his relationship with Judge Daugherty became public.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all very much.

I would note for the record, of all the forms that Mr. Conn had prepared, every one of them, every one of the forms said 'Demonstrated reliability: Poor.'

You would agree with that?

To me that would be indicative of the whole mindset of the problem in Washington today.

One of the difficulties we have as Members of Congress, especially if you want to do oversight, is getting responsiveness out of the Administration.