SSA Commissioner Receives Award.

Commissioner Astrue received the public health leadership reward from the National Organization of Rare Disorders. The commissioner's implementation of the compassionate allowance in social security disability claims and, other initiatives to shorten the amount of time people with disabilities have to wait to get a decision, appears to be one of the reasons he was given this award. The compassionate allowance allows people with certain medical conditions to be granted disability much quicker. If a person has a medical diagnosis on a list of about 50 conditions than they are automatically granted disability. I have written on the subject before. Commissioner Astrue in a short time as the head of the Social Security Administration has continually pushed for programs and technologies to speed up the process. I would like to congratulate the Commissioner, because since he was put in charge there has clearly been a focus on decreasing the backlog of disability claims. This is an uphill battle for sure, because of the increasing claims due to the economy and baby boomer generation. However, without his leadership the backlogs may have become even longer and it appears they have atleast stabilized. I hope the commissioner continues to explore new ways to decrease the time it takes to get a decision for those applying for Social Security disability benefits. If his record is any indication, then we can look forward to continued improvement in the Social Security disability process. The National Organization of Rare Disorders also played a key part in the development of the compassionate allowance initiative. Click here for the SSA official press release. For more up to date Social Security Disability information visit my Ultimate Disability Guide website.