Expedites Decisions for People with Severe Disabilities
The Social Security Administration recently announced the addition of 13 new conditions to the agency’s Compassionate Allowances (CAL) list. The CAL initiative accelerates the disability application process for individuals with the most serious diseases and medical conditions that, by definition, meet Social Security’s standard for disability benefits.
The newly added conditions are:
- Au-Kline Syndrome
- Bilateral Anophthalmia
- Carey-Fineman-Ziter Syndrome
- Harlequin Ichthyosis – Child
- Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
- LMNA-related Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
- Progressive Muscular Atrophy
- Pulmonary Amyloidosis – AL Type
- Rasmussen Encephalitis
- Thymic Carcinoma
- Turnpenny-Fry Syndrome
- WHO Grade III Meningiomas
- Zhu-Tokita-Takenouchi-Kim Syndrome
With the inclusion of these 13 conditions, the CAL list now includes 300 conditions in total. Since the CAL initiative began, over 1.1 million people with severe disabilities have been approved through this accelerated disability process.
“By adding these 13 conditions to the Compassionate Allowances list, we are helping more people with devastating diagnoses to quickly receive the support they need,” said SSA Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano.
When a person applies for disability benefits, Social Security must obtain medical records to make an accurate determination. Although not available in every claim, through the Health IT program, Social Security securely receives electronic medical records, allowing for adjudicators to make faster and more accurate decisions.
For more information about the initiative, including a list of all CAL conditions, please visit http://www.ssa.gov/compassionateallowances.
To learn more about Social Security’s Health IT program, please visit http://www.ssa.gov/hit.
People may apply online for disability benefits by visiting http://www.ssa.gov.
