WASHINGTON--The massive backlog of Social Security disability benefit cases could soon begin shrinking nationwide now that the "quick disability determination" process has been extended to all state disability determination services.

The agency issued a final regulation last month extending the QDD process to all states after successfully testing it in New England. It will be gradually implemented over the next several months, agency officials said.

Under QDD, a predictive model analyzes specific elements of data within the electronic claims file to identify those where there is a high potential that the claimant is disabled and where evidence of the person's allegations can be quickly and easily obtained.

By utilizing the new system, 97 percent of the cases in New England were decided within 21 days; the average decision time was 11 days. About 85 percent of the cases were allowed during the initial review, and more were allowed with additional documentation, officials said.

"The quick disability determination has been very successful and efficient so far in New England and I am happy to say it will help people filing for disability benefits anywhere in the United States," said Michael J. Astrue, commissioner of Social Security, in announcing the final rule.

Social Security receives more than 2.5 million new disability cases and more than 2.3 million Supplemental Security Income cases each year. Pending hearings have doubled since 2001, even though administrative law judges who hear the cases have a high productivity rate, Astrue said. In July, Social Security had a backlog of about 738,000 cases that were awaiting hearing decisions; those cases had an average waiting time of 505 days, the highest in Social Security history.

"The length of time many people wait for a disability decision is unacceptable," said Astrue. "I am committed to a process that is as fair and speedy as possible. While there is no single magic bullet, with better systems, better business processes and better ways of fast-tracking targeted cases, we can greatly improve the service we provide this vulnerable population."

Astrue said he was particularly proud of the diminishing pending disability cases that had reached 1,000 days.

"We have aggressively worked on these cases and now have fewer than 600 pending, down from more than 63,000 cases in October of last year," he said.

In addition to extending the QDD nationwide, Astrue said he also hopes to expand the system to incorporate as many diseases as possible. He said Social Security was "committed to pushing the number of cases that can be decided through the model as high as we can possibly go while maintaining accuracy."

For more information about Social Security's disability programs, go to www.socialsecurity.gov.