Posts tagged "compassionate allowances"

As May comes to an end, so does National ALS Awareness Month. ALS is the more common term for the medical condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a physical disability that affects many people in West Virginia.

Each year more than 5,600 people are diagnosed with this neurodegenerative disease. The disease is progressive, so someone who is diagnosed with the condition may initially appear fine, but he or she will slowly have the pathways in his or her brain and spinal cord attacked and destroyed. Because this is an extremely serious condition with no known cure, the Social Security Administration has put it on its list of "Compassionate Allowances."

Social Security Disability Insurance benefits can be difficult to get. You have to not only show that you have heart disease, but you also need to show that you are no longer able to work. There are some conditions, however, that have been classified by the Social Security Administration as so serious that a diagnosis will be sufficient to prove disability. There are talks that the Administration will possibly be adding heart disease to this list of "Compassionate Allowance" conditions.

The Social Security Administration has taken the first steps in determining whether or not heart disease should be an automatic disability. The Administration recently held public outreach hearings in order to gather opinions on the matter. The Administration has also been considering adding some cardiovascular conditions individually instead of the whole umbrella of heart disease.

People in West Virginia who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease, know and understand how devastating the disease can be. One of the most frustrating aspects for people suffering from ALS is the fact that ALS is often referred to as a mystery disease, meaning that very little is understood about what causes it.

People with ALS can take some solace in the fact that the Social Security Administration has streamlined its processes for handling disability claims made by ALS patients. The Social Security Administration added ALS to its list of compassionate allowances, which is a list of diseases that are so severe that disability claims for those diseases go through a streamlined approval process. In the past, ALS patients needed to go through the traditional process of showing that their ALS was advanced and that it prevented them from working.

If you or a member of your family is fighting an autoimmune disease, you may be entitled to Social Security Disability benefits. Presently, the Social Security Administration is considering changes to the way people with autoimmune disease can apply for those benefits.

The Social Security Administration is holding its seventh public hearing on its Compassionate Allowance system. This week's hearing will focus on adding several autoimmune diseases to its list of Compassionate Allowances.

Last month we posted about the Social Security Administration adding to its list of compassionate allowances. Compassionate allowances are a list of diseases and conditions that considered so serious that they will almost certainly qualify for Social Security Disability benefits.

In the time since we have posted that article, we have noticed a large amount of people searching for a complete list of the diseases on the Compassionate Allowances list. The list is available on the Social Security Administration's website, however the site can be confusing to use at first and not all of the diseases are listed in the same place. To better serve you, our readers, we have compiled a list of Social Security's 88 compassionate allowances.

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Lung cancer is a devastating disease that is projected to kill 157,000 Americans this year. On average, the survival rate is just 15 percent after five years. Lung cancer is such a debilitating disease that the Social Security Administration includes many types of it among its list of compassionate allowances in making disability decisions. However, a new detection option may be good news in the fight against lung cancer.

The National Cancer Institute's National Lung Screening Trial recently compared spiral CT scans with the traditional method of detecting lung cancer, chest X-rays. The trial assigned current and former heavy smokers between 55 and 74 years old to get annual screenings. The people being scanned had no cancer symptoms when the trial began, so the tests were entirely preventative. One group received the spiral CT scan and the other group received chest X-rays. Over eight years, there were 354 lung cancer deaths among the spiral CT scan group compared with 442 deaths in the X-ray group. This reflects a 20 percent reduction in the rate of deaths among current and heavy smokers.

The Social Security Administration has expanded the list of its Compassionate Allowances to include a total of 88 conditions.  The Compassionate Allowances list conditions that are deemed so serious that they will almost certainly meet Social Security's disability standards.

The list has been developed over the last few years by asking for and considering public comments and concerns. The Social Security Administration has also worked with health groups including the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institutes of Health.  Originally, it contained 50 conditions, but 38 more conditions have been added this year. The original list contained a combination of rare diseases and cancers including acute leukemia, gallbladder cancer, small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. The newly listed conditions include debilitating brain conditions including mixed dementia and rare diseases like Sanfilippo Syndrome.