Have you recently become disabled and the medical condition is so severe that you cannot work? If your answer is “yes,” it’s worth it for you to find out if your condition is included in the Compassionate Allowances. But what is it?
“Compassionate Allowances are a way to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that, by definition, meet Social Security’s standards for disability benefits. These conditions primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and a number of rare disorders that affect children,” according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The CAL initiative helps the SSA reduce the waiting time as the agency reaches a disability determination for those who have the most serious disabilities. The SSA continues, “The Compassionate Allowances program identifies claims where the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets Social Security’s statutory standard for disability.”
Examples of Compassionate Allowance Conditions
If you have a serious disease or condition, you may be wondering if yours is on the list of Compassionate Allowance conditions. Here are some examples of CAL conditions:
- Acute Leukemia
- Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Bladder Cancer
- Dravet Syndrome
- Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
- Esophageal Cancer
- Gallbladder Cancer
- Heart Transplant Wait List
- Kidney Cancer
- Liver Cancer
- Pancreatic Cancer
How does the SSA know which conditions are so severe that they automatically meet the SSA’s definition of a disability? The agency receives information from various sources, including the public, comments that come in from the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and from medical and scientific experts. The SSA also receives information from public outreach hearings that address CAL conditions.
To find out if your disease or condition is included in the CAL conditions and in effect, if it allows you to be included in the agency’s fast-track approval process, contact The Zendeh Del Law Firm, PLLC.