SSA Includes 13 New Disability Conditions to CA Program

Social Security Law – Federal News October 13, 2011

Baltimore, Maryland - The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced inclusion of 13 new Compassionate Allowances conditions involving the immune system and neurological disorders, a statement released from its website said. Commissioner Michael Astrue made the announcement during his remarks at the US Conference on Rare Diseases and Orphan Products in Washington, D.C.

SSA’s Compassionate Allowances (CA) program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months or years.

Astrue said that with the Compassionate Allowances program, disability benefits for more than 60,000 people with severe disabilities were quickly approved in the past year. He also said that the agency has made significant improvements.

Social Security launched the Compassionate Allowances program in 2008 with a list of 50 diseases and conditions. The announcement of 13 new conditions, effective in December, will increase the total number of Compassionate Allowances conditions to 113. The conditions include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, a number of rare genetic disorders of children, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other disorders.

The new Compassionate Allowances conditions include malignant multiple sclerosis, paraneoplastic pemphigus, multicentric Castleman disease, pulmonary Kaposi sarcoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, primary effusion lymphoma, Angelman syndrome, Lewy body dementia, Lowe syndrome, corticobasal degeneration, multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy and the ALS/Parkinsonism dementia complex.

The agency also announced a small grant program for graduate students that will help Social Security improve its list and has recently awarded an approximately $1.5 million grant over a five-year period to Policy Research, Incorporated (PRI) through the Disability Determination Process Small Grant Program. This new program aims to improve the disability process through innovative research by graduate students who will receive small stipends for their work. In addition, the agency recently streamlined its online disability application for people who have a condition on the Compassionate Allowances list.