After completion of an electronic certification process, all states are now certified to process disability cases in a fully electronic environment. In most cases, the CEF is SSA's official folder.

The CEF is SSA's electronic disability repository of data used to store a claimant's disability file information. The CEF is created when a disability case is entered in the Electronic Disability Collect System (EDCS), which electronically collects disability report information (e.g., SSA-3367-F5 (Disability Report---Field Office), SSA-3368-BK (Disability Report---Adult), SSA-3369-BK (Work History Report), SSA-3820-BK (Disability Report---Child), and SSA-3441-BK (Disability Report---Appeal)) and establishes the electronic record. This information may include the claimant's own data entries via the Internet disability report forms (e.g., i3368/i3369). All documentation is stored in the CEF. SSA is no longer required to simultaneously maintain a paper modular disability folder (MDF) for CEF cases.

The reviewing component receives a National Disability Determination Services System download and an electronic folder (EF) interface download when a case is selected for quality review. To perform quality reviews, reviewing components access the CEF via eView, which is available through interfaces from the quality review case processing system.

The Personal Identification Number (PIN) of the employee logged onto the workstation determines a user's access. For more information, refer to DI 81001.025, Authorized Access to the Certified Electronic Folder (CEF).

Review components access the CEF via eView through interfaces from OQR’s case processing system, the eView desktop icon, or the eView website. eView is a web-based software application that the review component uses to perform quality reviews and to take action on the disability information contained in the CEF. For further details regarding eView, refer to DI 81005.005, Electronic Disability (eDIB) and the Electronic Folder (EF).

The CEF is comprised of the following:

• •

  an electronic storage system housing disability information, consisting of keyed data entry fields and images of documents scanned, faxed, added through DocSend, or uploaded to the CEF,

• •

  information from various case processing systems used by SSA and adjudicating components to process disability cases,

• •

  information from external sources, such as medical providers, claimants, representatives, etc., and

• •

  information that allows various disability processing components to virtually share disability case information (i.e., without having to mail or move a paper MDF between case processing components).

The documents in the CEF are organized in the same format as the paper MDF, with additional sections at the end for Queries and Multimedia files.

The CEF sections include the following:

• •

  Section A – Payment Documents/Decisions (Yellow Front)

• •

  Section B – Jurisdictional Documents/Notices (Red)

• •

  Section C – Current Development/Temporary (Green)

• •

  Section D – Non-Disability Development (Orange)

• •

  Section E – Disability Related Development (Blue)

• •

  Section F – Medical Records (Yellow Back)

• •

  Queries – Stores scanned queries

• •

  Multimedia Files – Stores audio files

Review components must ensure that documents added to the CEF by fax or DocSend are:

• •

  successfully uploaded to the CEF,

• •

  accessible via eView, and

• •

  legible and usable on the screen.

NOTE: You do not have to take these verification steps if you use OQR’s case processing system to add a document to the CEF.

If the quality of the document is unacceptable, the quality reviewer re-images the document to improve the on-screen image.

Review components should retain documents added to the CEF until an acceptable imaged version for CEF case processing (i.e., all pages are completely imaged and legible) is verified. If the image is acceptable, shred the original document. For detailed instructions regarding source document retention, refer to DI 81020.055C., Document Retention and Destruction.