13 New Compassionate Allowance Conditions

SSA Announces 13 New Compassionate Allowance Conditions

In a press release dated October 13, 2011, Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced 13 new Compassionate Allowances conditions involving the immune system and neurological disorders. The Compassionate Allowances program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months or years. Commissioner Astrue made the announcement during his remarks at the U.S. Conference on Rare Diseases and Orphan Products in Washington, D.C today.

The Compassionate Allowances initiative identifies claims where the nature of the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets the statutory standard for disability. With the help of sophisticated new information technology, the agency can quickly identify potential Compassionate Allowances and then quickly make decisions.

The agency also announced a small grant program for graduate students that will help Social Security improve its list and has recently awarded an approximately $1.8 million grant over a five-year period to Policy Research, Incorporated (PRI) through the Disability Determination Process Small Grant Program. This new program aims to improve the disability process through innovative research by graduate students who will receive small stipends for their work. In addition, the agency recently streamlined its online disability application for people who have a condition on the Compassionate Allowances list.

New Compassionate Allowances Conditions

• Malignant Multiple Sclerosis
• Paraneoplastic Pemphigus
• Multicentric Castleman Disease
• Pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma
• Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma
• Primary Effusion Lymphoma
• Angelman Syndrome
• Lewy Body Dementia
• Lowe Syndrome
• Corticobasal Degeneration
• Multiple System Atrophy
• Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
• The ALS/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex

In August, SSA made the decision to streamline this process even further. According to SSA Commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, “By definition, these illnesses are so severe that we don’t need to fully develop the applicant’s work history to make a decision.” Therefore, the agency had decided that beginning in August 2011, it would eliminate this part of the application process for people who have a condition on the list.For more information on the Compassionate Allowances initiative or how Bassett Law Firm assists your claimants through the process, feel free to email Missy Thomas at mthomas@bassettlawyers.com or give me a call at 800-331-1127, ext. 218.

A full copy of the press release can also be found here: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/ss-expands-compassionate-allowances-alt.pdf