Social Security announces it is adding new medical conditions to its Compassionate Allowance Process.

The Social Security Administration made a press release on February 11, 2010 there will be expanding its list of medical conditions eligible for its compassionate allowance process. I have spoken about this process before which is very helpful for those who have very serious medical conditions. This is part of Commissioner Astrue's plan to help reduce the backlog of Social Security disability cases and get quicker decisions for those who are obviously disabled. When you apply if you have one of the medical conditions on this list it will be identified by a computer and referred for special consideration under the compassionate allowance process. If it is found that you have one of the conditions on the list it resolves in a very quick favorable determination. Previously, this list consisted mostly of different types of cancers but now there are many conditions listed that are not cancers. Even if you do not have one of medical conditions on the list it is still good news for you because it takes many other claims quickly out of the process which will hopefully lead to quicker decisions on SSD or SSI claims that goes through the regular Social Security process. Below is a list of the new medical conditions added compassionate allowance program. For more information on compassionate allowances and the other medical conditions it covers you can visit the SSA website at www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances . You can also find the rest of the list on my web page on cancer and Social Security Disability.

Below is the added medical conditions to the list.

Alstrom Syndrome, Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia, Ataxia Spinocerebellar, Ataxia Telangiectasia, Batten Disease, Bilateral Retinoblastoma, Cri du Chat Syndrome, Degos Disease, Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Edwards Syndrome, Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, Fukuyama Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, Glutaric Acidemia Type II, Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) Familial Type, Hurler Syndrome Type IH, Hunter Syndrome Type II, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa Lethal Type, Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses, Leigh’s Disease, Maple Syrup Urine Disease, Merosin Deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, Mixed Dementia, Mucosal Malignant Melanoma, Neonatal Adrenoleukodystrophy, Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses Infantile Type, Niemann-Pick Type C, Patau Syndrome, Primary Progressive Aphasia, Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, Sanfilippo Syndrome, Subacute Sclerosis Panencephalitis, Tay Sachs Disease, Thanatophoric Dysplasia Type 1, Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, Walker Warburg Syndrome, Wolman Disease, and Zellweger Syndrome.

For more information on the Social Security Disability process and how SSA is trying to improve processing times you can visit my linked page on the subject.

SSA Commissioner Astrue's new intiatives.

SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue spoke at the recent NOSSCR conference. The Commissioner spoke of the decreased waiting times at the hearing offices as well as some new planned initiatives for the Social Security Administration. The Commissioner plans include opening up new hearing offices. He also hopes to be able to hire more administrative law judges and increase the usage of video hearings. Part of this initiative is also to allow lawyers and representatives the ability to conduct hearings from their office by video conference as well. The hope is that these initiatives will help deal with the increased caseload while decreasing wait times at the hearing level. There is also plans to develop new software to help with the decisions at the application level. In addition there are plans to develop a new system to deal with the occupation aspect of Social Security claims. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles also called the DOT has been the SSA's primary source for dealing with occupational issues. The Commissioner noted that the DOT is outdated. The commission also plans to update the listing of impairments on a more regular basis. The Commissioner also has a new initiative to allow "compassionate allowances". This would allow quicker decisions for claimants whose medical condition would clearly meet Social Security's definition of disabled. The above information is from my attendance at the NOSSCR conference and the Social Security Forum released by NOSSCR in the October 2008 edition. Commissioner Astrue should be commended for the decrease in wait times at the hearing level and for his active pursuit of new initiatives to make the Social Security Disability process better. The biggest question I have is whether SSI will have the funds in this new economic environment to be able to carry through on all these initiatives.