Social Security Holds First Disability Hearing on Compassionate Allowances

[Guest guest]

Social Security Holds First Disability Hearing on Compassionate

Allowances

http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/compassionate-allowances-pr.htm

Experts' Testimony on Evaluating Rare Diseases Available on

www.socialsecurity.gov

The Social Security Administration is making statements from its two-

day public hearing with some of the nation's leading experts on rare

diseases available online at www.socialsecurity.gov. The experts

presented testimony and shared their views about Social Security's

efforts to identify and implement " compassionate allowances " for

children and adults with rare diseases.

" We need to identify and fast-track disability cases that are

certain or near-certain to be allowed, " said J. Astrue,

Commissioner of Social Security. " The compassionate allowances

initiative will allow the Social Security Administration to make

decisions on cases involving certain categories of conditions in

days or weeks instead of months or years. "

Compassionate allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases

and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under Social

Security's Listing of Impairments based on minimal objective medical

information. Compassionate allowances will let Social Security

quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals for

allowances based on objective medical information that can be

obtained quickly. Many of these claims can be allowed based on

confirmation of the diagnosis alone; for example, acute leukemia,

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and pancreatic cancer. In these

cases, allowances can be made as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed

or the other necessary objective medical evidence is obtained.

This hearing, held on December 4th and 5th in Washington, D.C., is

the first of four public hearings that Social Security plans to hold

over the next year.

Please go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances

for testimony from many of the rare disease experts and a photo

gallery of the hearing.